The Taming of the Beasts
by atheistbasementdragon
Summary: Times were desperate for the Draconic Kingdom, and in their hour of need, the days before the turning of the world and the great conflagration, they turned to a stranger to save them from being consumed. The Sorcerer King, what price would he ask, what would he do to save them, and what will perish in his wake? (Branch Story from: God Rising, taking place before current events)
1. Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

"What brings you to us today?" Ainz asked the ambassador from the Draconic Kingdom.

The ambassador was not offended, he was the very soul of 'not offended' indeed his very name, "Kabak Kor" meant 'not offended' in a long dead tongue taken from an ancient book on his father's estate, it was by no accident that he had the name, he'd quietly changed it in his youth when he first sought to join the diplomatic corps, to remind himself that in the service of his kingdom, he must never feel personally offended. It was this carefully cultivated neutrality in face and body language and even in the intonation of his voice that had gradually made him the top diplomat for her majesty. If anyone ever got the reference of his name, he had never encountered them before. At least...not before now. Ainz Ooal Gown, the fearsome undead king of unknown but doubtless great age, seemed to catch it.

When he'd introduced himself, the Sorcerer King had said, "Kabak Kor...an...unusual name." His red orbs had seemed to narrow as he leaned forward to appraise the diplomat.

"Chosen by myself...to remind me of my task." Kabak had said softly, and then the Sorcerer King had leaned back in his chair as if satisfied, Kabak felt as if he'd passed some kind of 'test' because it was only then that he'd been asked after his purpose for coming. The slender middle aged diplomat shuddered to think what would have happened if he'd 'failed' whatever that test was.

"Sire," he said softly, "I come to you to beg your help. We are in a dire state, several of our cities have been consumed by the beastman kingdom that shares a border with us. In the past we would ask the aid of the Empire. They however, are now your vassal and cannot be appealed to directly. We would also appeal to the adventurers guilds of various nations and hire their best to drive off small incursions. However the adventurers guild is now nationalized under your kingdom. We would also appeal to the Holy Roble Kingdom and even the Re-Estize Kingdom, and they would both sometimes lend support of some kind, but both have been decimated by Jaldabaoth..." Kabak made careful effort to not mention that the latter had also been decimated by the Sorcerer King himself. "We would also appeal to the Slane Theocracy to send their scriptures, but they have refused us citing 'ongoing concerns with their war against the elves' therefore we have nobody left to seek help from that we have worked with in the past, nobody left...but your noble self."

Ainz had listened patiently. "Is this incursion unique in some way? It stands to reason that your nation has been established for centuries, as has the nation of beastmen, therefore you must have normally been strong enough to fend them off on your own, I find it hard to believe that you received aid every time you appealed for it." He pressed for answer, and his voice was polite, but firm.

Kabak sighed heavily, "Yes my lord, this one is different. In the past, they treated our kingdom as a game preserve of some sort, they would make incursions, seize villages...take small numbers of people as a food supply, and then allow us to repopulate, skirmishes between our kingdoms was rooted in small group actions, our elites could handle themselves, and if it became to much, well aid would come to turn the tide. This however IS different, they are not going after villages, they launched a full blown invasion and are seemingly bent on the annihilation of our nation. We have no idea why this changed, and they're not telling us." Kabak swallowed hard, this was a delicate moment.

"We have lost the three major cities of the east, it effectively puts half our total land area in their power. They've stopped...for now, but a few have escaped the cities and have told us tales of blood chilling horror, they are 'feasting on our people, men, women, children, young and old, no one alive or dead, is not food, and they toy with their captives in the cruelest of ways, forcing fathers and mothers to choose which child will be eaten first, or eating them in pieces day by day, keeping them alive to let their families watch them disappear a little more every day, a hand, a foot, a leg...they're more demonic than the demons." Kabak said with a voice that was kept entirely neutral, but he could not hide the desperate horror in his eyes, even he was moved by this.

"So I am your...last resort, such as it is." Ainz said simply.

"Sire, I assure you my nation intended no offense in coming to you at this late hour in our time of need, I can say only that when a man is in danger, he turns first to his friends before he turns to strangers, only our friends are broken, gone, dead, or are your servants now and cannot help us without your leave." He opened his hands at the side of his body and looked up at the throne of kings, wearing an honest expression designed to show that he was hiding nothing.

Ainz let the silence hold for a moment and then said, "Yes, I can understand that. Now, I must first say that I truly sympathize with my royal sister, the queen of the Draconic Kingdom. It was no fault of hers that that Empire chose to yield to me, nor was it her fault that the adventurer's guild model removed it as an option, nor did she advise the Re-Estize Kingdom to resist me, and she was not the cause of Jaldabaoth's invasions. It would be further cruelty to deny her help in this, her hour of need."

Kabak sighed deeply inside himself, he felt the stomach that had dropped at the silence, return with the Sorcerer King's offering of hopeful words.

"Yet first I would know what you ask, are you requesting that I send my armies to fight for you? Or are you requesting that I release my vassal's armies to assist you, or send my adventurers out, what...precisely...do you want?" Ainz said.

His question brought a flood of relief to Kabak Kor, who knew this dance better than any living man or woman in the Draconic Kingdom. That the Sorcerer King had asked for specifics and not vagueness, and had not rejected anything, meant that the question of whether he would help was contingent only on price, not whether or not he would help at all. Some specifics might be to much to ask, but the process of negotiation meant that he had a very good chance of coming away with the ability to save his nation.

Kabak Kor pretended to think carefully, "Sire, while anything that would restore our nation is what we would ask, I know that this vague answer would be displeasing to you. I would ask that you dispatch armies, use those to rescue our captive citizens, and drive off the beastmen armies...with as many casualties as you can."

The red orbs of the Sorcerer King's eyes went wider. "Armies you say. That is a very considerable request. So I must ask in turn," Ainz leaned forward expectantly, "what is it your nation is offering to benefit mine in exchange for this?"

Kabak met the red orbs in the naked skull of the undead king, the queen had been explicit in her instruction, and he answered as she had when he'd asked her how much to offer. "Everything." He said. "We offer everything, our people will serve you, our people are your people, to command, to work, to tax, whatever you would have of us. Even if you killed us, it could not be worse than what we suffer now. Save our nation, and it will be come yours, our queen has even offered up herself...as bride...as hostage...as living sacrifice or your satisfaction, security, or magic use...anything."

It was a hard moment for the ambassador, but he said it clearly, loudly, and with absolute confidence, because the queen had said it the same way, her dedication to her people was second to none, and as a result she was surrendering her throne, her life, her body, as price and penance for her failure, giving it all to someone who could do what she could not. If it was hard for him, it was harder for her, so Kabak did his best.

Ainz's next words shattered that hope.

"That will not be necessary." Ainz said with flat finality.

"So your majesty will not help us then?" Kabak asked, fearing he might very well faint.

"Oh no, I will help, it is just that offering so much is not fair." He said.

Kabak looked confused, this wasn't how the game was played. His nation was desperate, it was over a barrel, it had no hope and no future, the Sorcerer King could save it, it was therefore his to have for the asking at any price at all.

"I'm afraid your majesty has me at a loss." Kabak said, allowing confusion to enter his tone.

"I see...so this principle too has been forgotten..." Ainz said, shaking his head as if sorrowful, and Kabak remained silent, but listened intently, thinking he might gain some insight into the Sorcerer King's great age and deep thinking.

"If a powerful armed and armored man approaches you in the street and demands your coins in exchange for your continued health, and you give him your coins as he demands, and then he leaves you healthy as promised, are you grateful to him for his 'service'?" Ainz asked.

"No, your majesty." Kabak said.

"Because he is just a criminal, isn't he?" Ainz asked.

"Well, yes sire." Kabak replied again.

"So it is with all contracts. You see one of the fundamental principles of contract law is that there must be some form of what we call...was called, a 'meeting of the minds' wherein two or more negotiators intending to take part in the bargaining are seen to come together as peers, offering something of mutually beneficial exchange. If one party is abusing the other, holding all the power and leaving the other with no recourse but to accept whatever scraps are thrown to them, then there is no 'meeting of the minds' and such a contract is considered to be invalid. So it also is with treaties and agreements between nations. It is true I hold the means to save your nation, but in doing so if your nation ceases to exist, then how am I different than the man with a sword demanding your coins?" Ainz said, regaling the ambassador with his explanation of a legal principle Kabak had never heard of before.

"I am at a loss your majesty, we do not have such a principle of law." Kabak said.

"Well then adding that would be my first condition." Ainz said flatly, "And having your judges trained in it to adjudicate contracts on its basis."

"I can promise your majesty this." Kabak said with certainty, "I can also say her majesty will no doubt approve on a personal level. Such a legal structure would be beneficial to her people."

"I would also like to purchase a large plot of land, from the prewar border, to the village nearest the first city to be depleted...and a strip of land wide enough for a wide road to travel to my domain." Ainz said. It was not a small amount of land, but it was still nothing, relative to what was being offered, and it was land next to the beastman kingdom. The Sorcerer Kingdom was offering to serve as a permanent buffer state to the beastmen, it was a virtual dream come true.

"My nation will also agree to that condition your majesty." Kabak said. "However may I ask, what would you do with it, forgive my question your majesty, but your population is not large. What use is it to you?" Kabak was the best of the best, he was suspicious of anything that seemed out of place, and THIS seemed very out of place.

"I will need it for refugees." Ainz said as if he was giving the time of day.

Kabak closed his mouth, his first thought was that he intended to allow the Draconic Kingdom's citizens to resettle there under his rule...but that didn't make sense, there simply weren't enough to resettle that much land, and that was assuming anyone wanted to come anywhere near to the border with the beastman kingdom for generations. Then it occurred to him...he didn't mean Draconic Kingdom refugees. He thought better than to push his luck with further questioning the undead king.

"I see." Kabak said simply. "What more would your majesty ask of us?"

"Minor matters such as trade terms that can be handled at a later time, for now I would only add that when refugees come to your border, no matter where from, that you accept them, provided of course they do not pose an immediate threat or behave in a violent fashion, I will compensate your kingdom for any expenditures in supplies used on them. When the time comes, one of my maids will go to your country and remain in the care of your queen until such time as the resettlement task is complete. She will oversee all supply needs when the occasion arises."

Kabak could scarcely believe it. As the Sorcerer King spoke, he felt the noble words as one feels fresh water from a spring wash away filth after a long time without bathing. Just like that...his nation was going to be saved, assuming the Sorcerer King spoke truly, and he could not bring himself to doubt it.

"We accept all your terms, these and those to come, with grace and gratitude." Kabak said, bowing with the depth and sincerity that was usually reserved for his queen alone.

"Then our business for now is concluded, you will be escorted safely to the borders of your homeland, unless you require a rest after your journey first?" Ainz asked considerately.

"Sire the exhaustion I felt was washed away with your words, and I am eager to return to my queen immediately and inform her of your wonderful offer." He said with swelling joy that was still growing in his breast.

"Well then we should make your trip easier and return you this instant, as soon as you have gone, I will tend to the beastmen." Ainz said casually, stretching out his hand and giving a nod to the dainty looking girl with the lovely pale skin.

"Shalltear, please open a gate and send the ambassador back to his capitol." Ainz said.

Kabak looked quite confused and shocked, and this did not change when the dainty looking girl spoke a single word and a black swirling hole opened up in the air beside him. Ainz gestured to it politely, "Step through there, and you will find yourself in your city again."

Fearing the unknown thing beside him, but fearing more to fail his nation and his queen in this final moment of a meeting that was already far more successful than he had ever dared to dream, he bowed again to the Sorcerer King and stepped through the gate, hiding his fear behind a smile of gratitude, a smile that melted when it shut behind him and he found himself looking at the entryway to the palace of the queen. His smile turned into a slack jawed and stupefied expression like a peasant seeing a warhorse for the first time...only about a thousand times worse.

The guards seemed no less shocked than he was to find him suddenly in front of them, but thankfully being a well known figure, they had the decency or the self preservation instincts to pretend to have known he was there the whole time and cover their own stupefied expressions with greetings and bows. "W-welcome back sir, we were not expecting you so quickly." One of the men said, obviously a bit nervous and lacking the diplomat's ability to hide it.

"Think nothing of it, I wasn't expecting to be back so soon either." Kabak said with a laugh that would have been detected as false only by the most observant of persons. He chose not to linger, but rushed forward as fast as he could through the palace corridors and all the way to the throne room, barging in without so much as a knock and a request for entry. The loud thundering sound of the doors echoed in the hall, which now seemed to him to be much smaller than they had before his visit to the home of the Sorcerer King. Now...everything, all his people's works as he ran through them in his mind, all their great deeds, seemed a child's fumbling attempts by comparison. There was however, no time for deep contemplation, though the queen was speaking with another figure, as soon as Kabak appeared she raised a hand whispered an instruction to depart, and called him forward instead. The prime minister would normally have been distressed by this breach of protocol and clucked his tongue in disapproval, but not now, not for this.

"Well?" She said, "Out with it." Her voice was abrupt, but to those who knew her best...well they couldn't miss the underpinnings of fear and despair that haunted her childlike form.

Kabak loved to be flowery in his prose, he loved to speak with eloquence and grace, he loved the artful dance of wordplay as much as he did to watch physical dance on stage, but her inquiry had stilled the court and bated breath greeted him, and on this day for this task, to give extended eloquent statements would be cruel, so he kept it short.

"He will save us." Kabak said, and a cheer echoed throughout the throne room and bounced from wall to wall as if the cheers were the spirits of children learning that their deaths by the beastmen would be avenged.

"When, how, what was his price?" She asked in a rush.

"He said immediately, and he did not say how, only that he would, and his price is absurdly low." Kabak said, and began to relay all that had passed between himself and the Sorcerer King, the trepidation of what the price would be had replaced the fear of being eaten, but as he passed the terms to the queen, only silence greeted him in return.

"This can't be real?" She half said, half asked. "That is a pittance. And what of these refugees, there are none, it can't be our own people, we'll be decades from reoccupying anything much beyond what we still have left, and it'll be generations before any of our people want to venture that close to the border so...who?" She asked further, to no one in particular.

There were shrugs in return, "I can only guess, but he seems to think he'll need the space, and I for one don't mind a buffer between ourselves and those monsters." Kabak said, and there was a round of head nodding in response, head nodding that was matched by the queen herself.

"Fair enough, we're getting off far more lightly than I ever dreamed, but...what the hell is he going to do?" She asked of no one in particular. "What were your impressions of him?" She asked as she fixed Kabak with a stare that told him this was not at all rhetorical.

Kabak took a heavy breath and answered as honestly as he could.

"Supreme." He said. "He seemed to stare right through me, to see my every fear to the core of my very name, he is clearly old beyond imagining and...well you heard of his legal concept in brief, and this I think is only a fragment of the boundless knowledge he has accrued over his long life. I felt myself to be both in the eye of a terrible storm that was choosing to spare me, but could obliterate me without noticing I was there, and also as though I were sitting at the feat of the great sages of old being granted a tiny piece of their wisdom." He fixed his stare back on the queen, "Majesty you know I am not given to flights of fancy and I am not given to frighten easily, but I implore you here and now, do not...do not...do not make an enemy of the Sorcerer King. If you do, I think we will long for the beastmen to come for us again."

That assessment made more than a few faces go pale and the queen looked pensive. "Thank you Kabak, you have performed a great service for us and you will be rewarded greatly for it, for now take quarters here in the palace and rest before you return home, you look exhausted."

"Majesty." He said and bowed sincerely before leaving.

**AN: Well, I'm back, and it was a wonderful vacation, my daughter loves her new puppy (French Bulldog), named 'Miss Kitty', and now the story telling resumes. This one will be relatively short, only a few chapters, so enjoy it while it lasts. Reviews welcome.**


	2. First Strike

_...Draconic Kingdom Capitol..._

Kabak had the first good night's sleep in months, perhaps years. His kingdom had lived on the edge of life and death for generations, constantly harassed and threatened by the beastmen. This did not serve for comforting evenings or sweet dreams. However...now? Now he slept like a baby, oblivious to all danger of all kinds, because for the first time in his life since he understood the danger the beastmen posed, he felt he was not in danger at all. If anything it was the reverse, he was absolutely certain that whatever the Sorcerer King said to the beastmen, they would ignore it, their arrogance...the arrogance of the strong, would compel them to respond the way they normally did, and he was absolutely certain that those beings of unconquered strength were about to find out just what 'strength' really was.

As Kabak slept however, the Draconic Queen stayed up late, the precise terms of the Sorcerer King's offer had come to her in short order, and she sat up late and alone in her throne room except for her prime minister reading over it. The precise terms were absurdly brief, simple, and generous, outlining the territory to be given to him in exacting detail that would serve as a buffer, a single ruined city she'd already lost, plus twelve miles west of it as a space for farmland and expansion, and land to the east of it stretching to the old border. Likewise a few changes to her legal system, express prohibitions on slavery, express prohibitions on punitive forced labor to nobles or other organizations, expressly granting legal rights to all travelers, including demihumans. An unusual legal standard of equality in contract law with legal nullification by judicial decree for unjust or abusive contracts, an express set of 'workers rights' with respect to their pay and property.

"Have you read over this Vermillion?" She asked.

"I did, my Queen." He replied, his voice still awed and his eyes still wide.

"So I'm not seeing things just because I'm drunk right now?" She asked.

"My queen I have not even seen you pick up a cup since Kabak returned, you would have had to be even more impressively drunk than usual for you to still be drunk enough to be seeing things now." He said, nonplussed by her question. Their long working relationship was the reason he could get away with saying such things, truth be told she was glad of his bluntness and unwillingness to pull punches with her, it helped keep her grounded in dire times.

She swallowed, she had no real retort but said, "Careful there Vermillion," she waved the treaty in his direction, "I might just replace you with whatever advisor came up with all these ideas."

"Your majesty, if you could lure such an adviser to your side, I would resign immediately, and not just to deny you the pleasure of firing me, but because such a figure is far beyond my own abilities and could serve you better than I ever have." He shook his head numbly. "I think however, it wasn't an adviser who did this." He said as he held up his own copy. "I have read transcripts of some of the Sorcerer King's speeches, and this reads the way he speaks, I think he did this by himself, it bears only a single voice throughout, I can find no part that feels like any other author's input." He said softly, "I've heard he is unfathomably intelligent, this would seem to confirm it."

Before the Queen could return a response of her own, a gate opened in the middle of the throne room, and through it stepped the spectre of death, dressed in clothing worth the price of a kingdom, bearing a staff of overwhelming beauty and power, and a skinless face and red eyes that looked through the very soul. It was the Sorcerer King, she was sure of that much, it could be no other. She composed herself as quickly as she could, while Vermillion froze in place as he looked at the face of eternity.

"Good evening, Queen Draudillon Oriculus," he inclined his head politely, "I am the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. It is a pleasure to meet you in person."

She swallowed hard, her dragon inherited instincts screamed about the incredible value of the objects that adorned him, it was unbelievable, yet it was real. Curiously from him, she felt no magic power at all, a thing that made no sense given the destructive reports of his magic...and what she'd just seen, that gate was clearly magic on another level entirely from what she knew.

"It is." She mustered out her reply at last. "I am overjoyed to finally meet our would be savior. I have read over your terms, and they are generous beyond measure, but...what brings you here? We are of course happy to receive you, but had you told us you were coming, we could have prepared a reception for you." She added.

Ainz shrugged, the gesture seemed so natural...he was gifted at acting like the living.

"I am not much for ceremony, and I prefer to see things done. If you are satisfied with the terms, we may sign the treaty now, and I will go deal with the beastmen now. I assume you would prefer that, to an elaborate ball held for a King who has not done anything for you yet." His voice had a thundering timbre of nobility to it, she could swear he was speaking to her very soul, not merely to her face.

"I...thank you sire." She said softly, "I have cursed my misfortune many times and my inability to act and do what my people need me to do, if you can accomplish this, I will be forever grateful, as will all my people." She said and took a quill offered by Vermillion and scrawled her name across the bottom of the treaty.

Ainz signed it in turn, and then they each signed a copy of it, so that each nation would bear a copy of its own for reference.

"Then it is done, and I will go." He said, "We can celebrate the safety of your people when their safety is achieved."

"That will be the first time I've drunk with happiness." She said.

"But...what will you do...how will you do it?" She asked, "There are so many of them, of so many types and of such power?"

"Not for long." Ainz answered, and he cast his 'gate' spell again.

"Incidentally sire, may I ask before you go...I have never seen that 'gate' spell of yours, may I ask what magic that is?"

"Its nothing special, just a ninth tier spell. Trivially easy, if you know what you're doing." He replied, before stepping through the gate.

As it closed the pair turned to look at one another, Queen and Prime minister alike, they stared at one another open mouthed and blown away.

"NINTH TIER?!" They shouted at one another, so loud that guards rushed in, fearing calamity.

Rather than reprimand them, the Queen immediately barked, "Go wake up every mage staying anywhere in the capitol, including the mages guild, and go wake up every historian out of every school, and go wake up every bard who sings of legends, and go wake up every adventurer, and bring them all to my throne room immediately!" Her voice carried the tint of urgency and they were not ones to argue with her orders.

While they waited, she spoke with Vermillion, "How can this be? can that even be real?" She asked incredulously.

Vermillion slumped over in a chair, "I honestly do not know, your majesty. I know little of magic, however we know that the Empire's former minister of magic, Fluder, could cast up to the sixth tier, and no human has ever gone farther that we know of. Legends say that the gods could cast the eighth tier, and that was the divine realm that no one, human, demihuman, heteromorph, or monster, has ever achieved. Even the dragon lords could not go beyond the seventh. Many even believe that the stories of the eight tier are merely mythical."

She thought it over, "The hero Momon supposedly had a crystal bearing eighth tier magic within it, retrieved from some distant lost ruin, and he used it to vanquish a dangerous monster that wiped out another team and, from what I hear, killed several black scripture members if our intelligence reports are accurate."

Vermillian rubbed his temple slowly from his slumped position. "I honestly do not know, majesty."

They continued to talk and draw no conclusions until mages, bards, historians, and adventurers began to filter in to the throne room, they were bleary eyed as could be, but summoned by the Queen herself, they could not refuse. When the last of them assembled, she asked bluntly, "Have any of you ever heard of ninth tier magic?"

Blank expressions met her face.

"Impossible." A mage replied.

"Never." An adventurer said firmly.

"Absolutely not." A bard said, "Except..."

"For one thing." A historian finished, and they looked at each other in surprise.

"Say it." The Queen said.

"Majesty, know that this is a wholly unconfirmed report, it is of only the most minor note, a single sentence in a single book." A historian said hesitantly, doing his damnedest to downplay the material.

"Well, what is it?" She asked impatiently.

"There is a an ancient text that reads about the gods of old, they were expanding the area controlled by humans, and one of the settlements was under attack, and Surshana, the god of death, used a scroll that created a hole in the air, black as night which crackled with power around it, and then he stepped through it, and saved the people of the settlement. This spell is said to be nineth tier."

The bard nodded, "I know that story, I use that scene in my songs and stories, I heard from another bard who grew up in that area that they even memorialize the place where he appeared and saved the place. Supposedly the statue of Surshana is placed on the very spot he appeared for their rescue. The thing is, its the only place I ever use that story because I don't know of anyone else ever doing it, and it seems impossible for a spell like that to actually exist."

"I see." She said. "Anyone else?" Silence greeted her.

"Thank you." She said. "Take ten silver each for your time on your way out."

When they were alone again the prime minister looked at her, and she looked back at him.

"I'd say we've just confirmed that the nineth tier exists and that he can use it." Vermillion said flatly.

"I'd say so, but more than that he said it was easy, that suggests there is even higher magic, how high can he go?" She asked in a hushed voice.

Vermillion's breathing grew shallow, "Lets make sure that...when we find that out, we are either beside him or behind him, and not in front of him." He said emphatically.

"Agreed." She said with conviction.

_...At the Beastman ruled city of Ha'ak Pale..._

Beastmen still stood watch on the walls, but they were very lazy about it. Humans were no real threat, this was more like busy work as far as they were concerned. Still, it had its perks, a few bound up humans were kept on the wall with them so they'd have something to eat, and as bearmen they ate a lot, all the way up until winter.

Their shift was nearly over, which was good, because they had only four humans left between them out of the original six. One of the bearmen looked down at the humans that were trapped there, he approached, he reached for one, it pissed itself and began to cry...then he reached for another, and got a similar reaction, then another, and it tried to wiggle away on its belly and got nowhere, before he settled on another human, its eyes were wide and staring up at the sky, not even seeing his claw. He'd been around enough humans to know what it was, it was a human woman, young one too. He touched her thigh and pinched it, the flesh was still soft and tender, she didn't react, she was in shock. This was a popular game for the beastmen, first eat a human in front of others, torture it by slow consumption to ensure it doesn't die painlessly, then keep the others nearby, and scare them relentlessly. Approach, pretend to be hungry, then when the human cries or wets or shits itself or otherwise degrades itself by pathetic weak behavior...ignore it. Humans had caught on to the game, they weren't stupid, sometimes they competed to degrade themselves, just because those who stopped, were sure to be eaten even if the beastmen weren't hungry. Only active toys were kept around for any period of time, and this on was now broken. That meant she might as well get eaten.

The bearman grinned viciously, "Looks like I win." He said to his companion, who grumbled about it, the one who got a human that mentally broke, got to eat first, and this one was ideal, young, soft, ample breasts, the last human he'd eaten had been desperate to protect her, for all the good it had done, now it was her turn. If she cared, she gave no sign, that was the only downside to the game, when one of them broke to far, there was no terror to savor, but the meat was still good and it was fun along the way.

It should have been just as much so this time, but his companion tapped him on the shoulder and pointed out into the distance. The sun was coming up, and in the light of the false dawn they could see a skeletal figure approaching the wall, it hadn't been there before...they didn't think, but it was clearly there now. Beastmen did not care for the undead, zombie meat was rotted and skeletons had no meat at all, disliking the undead was one of the few things they had in common with humans.

They were about to raise the alarm, but this was odd, usually the undead appeared in groups, and this one was alone. It also was remarkably well dressed, so as they puzzled over the meaning of its approach, they raised no alarm. The gate was made of iron, not impossible to break through in a siege, but not easy either, but probably impossible for one undead. So...what was it doing?

Their unspoken question was answered when the skeleton spoke.

"I am the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown, and you are trespassing. You will abandon this city and every living being in it, or you will die." He said bluntly. The bear man laughed uproariously at this and picked up the human woman by her ankle, "Stupid skeleton, I won't abandon my dinner! Neither will the rest of us!" He licked at the woman's flesh, and she just dangled there, it was a painful position, upside down, gripped in a bear's paw, other leg hanging limp and tugging on her groin, but she showed no feeling, just a sickening whimper passing her lips at the feel of the bearman's tongue, she softly whispered out the name of the man who died futily to protect her, and waited for the end with eyes closed.

It was because her eyes were closed that she did not see what happened next. "Grasp heart." Ainz said, and squeezed, and the bearman fell dead, dropping the woman hard to the stone underneath her. The other bearman looked on in shock, Ainz pointed at him. "Go, inform your commander that he has one hour to abandon this city or I will kill every beastman within it. If I do not see you move to obey in five seconds, you will fall down dead as your partner did."

The bearman wasted not a single moment, and Ainz activated an item and ascended to the top of the wall where the woman had fallen.

She looked up from where she lay, groaning in pain, and Ainz looked over her injuries, she'd been badly abused, there were cuts and bruises everywhere, she had broken fingers and toes, her ankles were snapped so she couldn't run, and she appeared to be all but catatonic.

'Shock.' He thought to himself.

"Are you...death?" She asked softly, "Are you Surshana, have I died?" She mustered out the question as she looked at his skeletal face.

"Save your questions." He said, "Answers will come in time, simply know for now that you will not die today, and you are not dead now."

She closed her eyes again and let tears fall, the other humans were not much better off than she, and gibbered like mad men. "Silence." Ainz said in his noble voice. "Your Queen has asked that you be rescued. Your rescue is here." He said.

That set off a whole new round of talking.

"The queen?"

"How did she get the undead to help?"

"Who cares, even if it kills us, its better than what we were going to have happen?"

Ainz let them chatter quietly as he waited for a response, and he did not wait long, an impressive looking lion man approached the wall, and a bearman pointed up at Ainz.

"That is the one right there! He killed Dagin instantly!" The bearman's voice was filled with terror, it was not unusual for beastmen to die, even humans could inflict casualties, but the casual ease of it, the suddenness, chilled him to the bone.

Ainz pointed to the bearman guard. "You. Do not move." He said The bearman froze except for his trembling, but the lion man appeared to be made of sterner stuff.

"How are you?!" He said, "We rule Ha'ak Pale now, the humans here are OUR meat, and we will not give them up, now what are you, one measly undead, going to do about it!" His nostrils emitted a snort of contempt.

"This." Ainz said. "Grasp heart." He squeezed, and the commander fell over dead. "To the next in command, you have fifty five minutes to leave this city and every human in it, or I will kill you all."

"Kill it!" a tigerman shouted, before instantly falling over dead as Ainz used 'grasp heart' once again.

Beastmen were not known for their cowardice, and they did try to fight, save for the one bearman who had been told not to move, but even as they approached, Ainz simply killed them with a single spell, first using one skeletal hand, then two, and they dropped like flies. And every five minutes, he announced that they were running out of time.

"You have fifty minutes to leave!" And then he killed more who approached.

"You have forty five minutes to leave!" And then more who approached fell over dead.

This went on until there was only one minute remaining and those who were still alive ceased their attacks and turned and fled. One minute was not enough time to abandon a city, and none of those but the bearman reached the gate. "Create undead, death knight!" he said, and one of the bodies was covered in black fluid, and slowly took form. When it stood before the bearman in all its nightmarish horror, Ainz said, "Go, kill every beastman in this city except that one, and harm no humans." Ainz pointed to the bearman, who was suddenly understanding human fear very, very well as the Deathknight turned its gaze away and rushed off. There were a great many screams out of his sight as the death knight tore through his comrades like they were not there, the sound of a smashing shield, screaming throats, and breaking bodies did not go quiet for a very...very long time as far as he was concerned.

His relief did not endure as the Sorcerer King descended the stairs, and the bearman felt the approach of death itself, when the Sorcerer King stood over him, it was all he could do to kneel in submission. "You will go to the next nearest city, you will tell them what happened here, you will tell them that I will approach that city tomorrow, you will tell them that if I find them there, I will kill them all. You will tell them that if I find a single human having been eaten or tortured in the time between your arrival and mine, then they will not be killed, only wish that they had been, until their dying day. Get...out...now." Ainz said, and released his aura of dispair, and all resistance to the Sorcerer King, had their been any left, melted away like ice in summer sun.

The bearman scurried out of the gate as fast as he could go, casting away weapons and armor to give himself as much speed as possible.

When this was done, Ainz went to the humans on the wall and removed their bonds.

"Who...are you?" One of the humans asked. "I am Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom."

"Aren't you undead? Why do you help us?" One asked.

"You have time enough to die, that there is no reason to rush it, for now we have other matters to attend to, each of you go and unbind your fellows, and tell them to do the same, let every human still living, meet me in the city's...does this city have a public meeting place?" He asked.

"An amphitheater." One of them said.

"Good, have them all gather there, I will await it, you want answers, you will come there, I will ensure your safety as you escape this place, and then tomorrow I will visit the next city."

Tears were common in the city of Ha'ak Pale, but until that night they had only been bitter, fearful, and sorrowful...and in truth many still were as they mourned the dead who had not been rescued, but there were also tears of joy at having survived, or of finding that other loved ones were also still among the living, but more than tears, there was fear and confusion still as the survivors insisted that it was an undead who had saved them, and that he had come at the behest of their queen. Many did not believe, many more could not believe, but when they found the mountain of beastman corpses they were told to give a look at before going to the amphitheater, most arrived quite certain that it had not been a human who had done the work of rescuing their lives.

It was early evening by the time they had gathered, there were some fifteen thousand out of the fortyfive thousand original inhabitants remaining, there were no elderly left among them, and very few young children. They took their seats with trepidation, fear...and a growing sense of hope that maybe...just maybe, they had a chance.

When the crowd had gathered, Ainz stepped out from behind a wall where he had been quietly rehearsing the things he had planned to say. Hearing about the undead was one thing, seeing it was another, and hearing the undead's voice itself was a different thing entirely.

"Welcome, citizens of the Draconic Kingdom, I am the Sorcerer King, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom, here at the behest of your Queen, and I've asked for you to come here, now, so I can tell you what is going to happen next."

There was not a sound from the crowd, hands clasped as if in prayer, but no words formed, no one wanted to say a word to the gods, and risk missing what their savior was about to say...

**AN: Well that finishes up chapter two, hope you liked it, I'm sure the question will come up about how Ainz can use grasp heart so often, and I have two answers to that, it seems to me that despite the tier of the spell, its more of a novelty spell for the players than one intended to have real combat potential, something meant to give them amusement when playing villains to lower level players, or a dream like build for role players playing a death god, or to just get low level npcs out of the way, so I doubt it would cost very much in the way of MP. So I treat its cost as very low and his MP is able to restore itself well enough that its use is minimally difficult en masse.**

**This story takes place AFTER the events of the LN, but BEFORE the events of God Rising, in case you haven't realized it. Soooo...hope that covers everything, this isn't going to be a long story, just a fun one, but of course, REVIEWS PLEASE!**


	3. The Running of the Bulls

"Congratulations. You are all still alive." Ainz said bluntly as he looked over the mass of humans. "You are not dead, and I am not here to kill you. I came to save you at the behest of your Queen. I come from another kingdom, and she has made offers and appeals to me that have induced me to apply myself to saving you. I am going to leave this city soon, and I will move on to the next city, and then the next, and every single beastman that does not run back over their borders, will die."

That drew cheers from a shocked crowd, husbands and wives who survived hugged and kissed, children who survived cried with happiness, those who had lost much and could only wait for death, looked on in utter disbelief that this was happening. But Ainz was not done, he raised his hands and called for silence.

"I said I am here to rescue you, not to escort you. You will make your way from here to safer places farther west, I suggest the capitol, but your lives are your own and you may go where you wish, but you must not remain here, take only what you can carry for now, when safety is restored, you may return here and claim your homes or goods at large, but there are villages and beastman camps not far from here who will soon realize that they are not going to get more of you shipped to them from this place, and since I am not remaining and the largest settlements are the most important, I cannot take the time to go to those places. Do you understand?"

There were bobbing heads among the crowd. "There isn't enough food for us to sustain us all the way there though! There is plenty of water along the way, but many of us are weak from hunger...how will we..." A man began to ask.

"The beastmen offer you their solution. Eat them. They may not appreciate the irony, but it is fitting that their bodies should sustain you as you go to safety." Ainz said in a quite reasonable tone of voice, and grim savage smiles came over the faces of the human audience.

"I will give you a few hours to cut up the meat you need and gather your things, but you must be gone by sunset." Ainz said, "Now go, and get to work. If any of you require healing, or know of those who do, have them brought to the amphitheater here, I will summon a servant to attend to them."

After the crowd had dispersed and Ainz had summoned Pestonya and set her to the wounded, he was about to walk away, when a vaguely familiar girl approached him. He recognized her as the girl who appeared catatonic before.

"Yes?" He asked. "What do you need?" His voice was not exactly warm, he did not like his thoughts being interrupted, but the girl knelt in front of him. "Allow me to follow you at least sire." She said.

"No." He said bluntly.

"Please." She begged and dared to meet his eyes with hers, they were wet, he was sure he was just a blur to her vision now.

"They ate my father, my mother, my brother, and the man I was going to marry, and his family, I have nothing left here and even if I go to the capitol, there is nothing for me there. Let me follow you, I want to see them die in dispair." Her voice had a hateful edge to it, and her body was visibly trembling.

"Let me come with you, even if you don't rest, surely you get bored, I could keep you company, I could do work for you, I could..." She blushed..."Keep you warm at night." Her face was beet red, "I'll carry wood, or search for valuables, give you anything I find, can you eat? I'll cook for you. Please...please your majesty? Grant me this small thing, you don't have to protect me, if I die, I die, say you will leave my corpse like trash in the dirt if that is what it will take, but please, while I live, while you do this, let me accompany you?" The woman begged and begged, and Ainz wondered why anyone ever thought offering their body to the undead was going to be appealing to the undead themselves.

Still, she was persistent, and it was a brave enough offer as far as it went...and he would get bored with nobody to talk to, he thought it over further, and he thought the guardians would eventually insist that he at least have a servant with him, and he could never get the kind of feedback he wanted from them... "Very well." He said. "I accept your terms, you may come with me. Meet me at the front gate at sunset, as you do require rest, I strongly advise that you sleep now." He added. "We will be moving over the course of the evening and strike the next city at sunrise."

She bounced up and down happily, "Thank you! Thank you sire!" it was like she was a child on Christmas morning and she'd gotten just what she wanted for herself.

"What is your name?" He asked her politely. "I should at least know what to call you other than 'bouncy girl'?" He added, and she stopped bouncing to blush again.

"I am Vanysa." She said, "Pleast to meetcha!" She gave a toothy grin and said, "I'll see you at the gate at sunset sire!" She waved happily as she skipped farther away.

"Something is not right with that one." Ainz said to himself. "Is it her lust for revenge, has she snapped from the trauma..." He sighed, "I have no time to consider it and no way to fix it, so for now I'll have to leave it be and let her come along."

Ainz spent some time walking the streets and meeting with the peasants and few surviving nobles who were busy packing up, in this Ainz saw that the peasants had a definite advantage, they had little to take with them, so nothing held them back, by contrast the nobles had an abundance of goods and wealth, and they were loath to leave any of it, so they packed large bags they couldn't possibly carry, or sought to hire peasants to carry their goods for them. Ainz put a stop to that quickly, sending an edict throughout the city that nobody was to carry anything for anyone except for those who were family members, or for someone who was to old or to young to carry things for themselves. This lead a number of pregnant women to protest, and Ainz, much embarrassed by the oversight, allowed others to carry things for them.

Casually he asked one how they survived as long as they had, she was heavily pregnant, and there was no way she had been driving them off, he instantly regretted the question. "Majesty," she said, "It is considered a delicacy to eat a newly birthed child." Her voice was sickeningly weak, but bore a hopeful note, "I am due in perhaps a week or two...had you not come...had you not come..." She broke down and hugged her belly protectively, and as he imagined the nightmare of being dragged to a feast while in labor...the fate of her newborn...Ainz felt sick.

"You are safe now." The undead King said.

"Thanks to you." She replied, "With your permission sire...there is no...father really."

"Immaculate conception?" He asked, "Is that a thing that happens on this world?" He tilted his head to the side curiously.

She actually laughed, "No sire, that isn't what I mean, that would be silly. I mean the child's father...he abandoned me when the beastmen threat appeared, ran away for parts unknown and left me...us, to whatever would happen to us. I want to ask, with your permission, would you accept a peasant giving her child the name of our savior?"

"I can think of no greater praise, what kind of king could say no to that?" He asked. A moment of inspiration occurred. "May I touch your belly?" He asked.

"You are a king, I am a peasant, you have power, I don't...you can do what you want." She said, but her tone of voice told him she was mystified that he would ask permission to touch her, and wondered why he would ask.

"Your body is yours. Nobody has a right to it. Never forget that." He said softly as he remembered the ideals his own world had abandoned and what it had done to those precious to him to have to endure a world without those beliefs.

"As your majesty wills it." The woman said in a gentle voice filled with awe, and Ainz placed his skeletal hand where her child rested, unlife reached out to new life, old to young, past to future, and briefly Ainz wondered if his mother had feared as much as this one did, how far they went to protect their young, good mothers were as much a blessing as bad ones were a curse. As he lingered a moment, he said softly, "Blessing of the Dark." And a fragment of his magic passed to from him to her as he cast his spell.

"Sire...what...?" She asked with confusion as he removed his hand.

"Tell no one of what I have done." He said, "But I have passed a blessing unique to my kind on to your child through you."

"A blessing?" She asked. "What sort?"

"That remains to be seen. Blessing of the Dark bestows gifts on those who receive it, but these gifts may take many forms, perhaps your child will have great dark vision, or be stronger in the twilight hours, or have an affinity for the type of magic I use. Whatever the case, it should be of use to them some day."

"Thank you sire." She said with a stunned whisper. "I will not forget this."

Nor did she.

Ainz went about the rest of the afternoon ensuring that people were packed and ready to move, and he had nobles carriages reverted to carts, and carts expanded to fit more people, he gave them simple rules for the trek back. Everybody begins by walking and carrying their goods. Carts move behind the whole of the line of movement, those who tire, fall, injure themselves, or grow sick, are picked up by the carts that follow, thus nobody is left behind. Everybody carried enough food for several days, and the handful of horses that remained would be ridden ahead to notify the Draconic Kingdom's officials of the coming stream of refugees and to bring back aid to ensure their quick arrival.

Finally sunset arrived, and Ainz went to the main entry gate, and found Vanysa waiting for him with a big toothy grin on her face again. Her eyes had a slightly fanatical tint to them, and for a moment that vaguely reminded him of the way Albedo looked when caught up in a moment of madness.

"Toldja I'd be here." She shouted, bouncing up and down and waving to him energetically.

As he approached he asked, "Did you sleep?"

"Aye ah did." She said with a rapid, manic nodding of her head.

"Well then follow." He said, as he walked out the gate, while the citizens of the city began to move out the other way, streaming towards the capitol.

Ainz kept up a brisk walking pace, but he found that she could quite easily keep up. After hours of enjoying the scenery and silence...and his total avoidance of work paperwork in Nazarick, he looked over to her. "What did you pack with you?" He asked.

"Ah got me some meat. Got bearman meat and lionman meat and tigerman meat, some ah each!" She said, swinging her pack around and rustling through it, pulling out samples of each in turn. Ah also managed to find some bread still left, but no potatoes for stew..." She frowned, somewhat disappointed.

"Well, you can at least make a sandwich." He said with a shrug.

"Whasat?" She asked as her pack went back into place, and gave him a little tilt of her head to one side, he had to admit, as humans went, she was pretty cute.

"You've never had them?" He asked, and then it occurred to him that he'd never seen anyone eat sandwiches before.

"Uh uh." She said, bringing her hands behind her head casually as they walked, Ainz felt very comfortable around the girl, though it seemed she was somehow 'off', she had a bouncy temperament and an abundant energy...and it didn't hurt that she had the kind of large breasts he'd liked when he was a human.

"You take a loaf of bread and slice it into pieces about the width of your finger so that you make a roughly square shape, then you slice meat into a width and shape that will fit within it. Then you place the meat between two of those slices of bread, then you put whatever you want with the meat, vegetables, various flavored sauces or gravy, when I used to eat, those were a favorite of mine." He said as he enthusiastically described the food.

"Well ah ain't got no sauces, an ah got no knife to cut the bread," He paused and pulled out a dagger from his pocket dimension and handed it to her, it was a trash item to him, but she looked at it in awe as he handed it to her. "isat silver?" She asked, "Ah you given me a silver dagger just to cut up bread and meat?" She looked at him with utter disbelief as she took it.

"No. That is white gold." He said casually.

"Ah can't take this!" She said with shock, "This's the kinda thing a noble'd have."

Ainz shrugged. "Do you have another knife?"

"Well...no...but..." She looked half panicked, but relented and attached the sheath to her belt. Then paused as she realized what she'd just seen, she'd been so distracted by the quality of the dagger that she hadn't given a thought to where he'd gotten it.

"But..ow'd you do that? Did you make it with magic? Ain't never seen magic like that b'fore." She said surprised.

"No, its how I store things, I have another space that only I can access, and when I wish something, I simply reach in and will whatever I am seeking to hand, in this way I can carry whatever I need, wherever I need it."

She went quiet at this, and Ainz chose to fill the silence. "As to the rest, you're right, meat and bread by itself does not a sandwich make." He said, and after a brief message, a beautiful maid stepped out of nothing, holding a sack full of vegetables and sauces. Vanysa stared in shock at the maid's black hair and incomparably beautiful face, her expression was severe, but this did not seem to detract from her beauty in the least.

She handed the sack to Vanysa, and Ainz traded a few polite words with her before she bowed, stepped through the hole in the air, and vanished the way she'd come.

"What'd I just see?" She asked in confusion and shock.

"A convenient means of travel, its a not something anyone else as far as I know, is able to use." Ainz replied.

"Ah see...well its right useful, but if its alright with you your majesty, I'm a mite hungry and ah'd like to lighten this load a bit by tryin out that sandwich thing you mentioned!" She gave him a hopeful and toothy grin, and it was impossible for him to say no.

"Very well." He said, "Prepare the camp, doesn't matter if we're on the road or off, so right here is fine."

She kept her grin and quickly went to work, and Ainz had to credit her with that, she was swift, efficient, she knew her way around the woods. She'd dragged a fallen trunk from a tree over to where Ainz was for him to take a seat, and one for herself, dug a small pit and surrounded it with rocks to make a fire, and crafted what she'd need to roast the meat in no time. She knew what to do and she did it well.

Within a very short span of time she was sitting there watching the meat roast over an open flame and she was fairly salivating, on this occasion, he saw she had chosen the meat of the bear man.

"Lick me will yah you sonofabitch, well lets see how you taste." She had a savage and hateful look on her as she salivated over the roasting flesh of her former tormentor. It was...a little disturbing.

When it was thoroughly roasted she took out the bread and he showed her the way to cut it to make the slices he'd described, then from there she worked out how to slice the meat into strips, and then she chose to overlay it with tomatos, turkey, and lettuce, and when Ainz suggested a yellow looking thing he called 'mustard' she agreed and slathered it on with wide hungry eyes, then closed the sandwich with the other slice of bread, cleaned her knife and resheathed it, then took a large bit.

Ainz wanted to laugh as she muffled out through puffed up filled chipmunk cheeks, "Ish shooooooo gooood!" Her eyes rolled back into her head in bliss and then her eyes closed as she let herself get lost in the feel of eating. And that was the moment when he could not restrain himself and burst out laughing, deep, nobly, long at the absurd sight before him. His skeletal hand slapped his thigh as she struggled to chew the excessively large bite.

When she finally managed to swallow, she took another one of roughly equal size and the absurdity repeated itself. When she was down to her last bite, she fairly licked her fingers with glee. "Ah tell yah when ah get outta all this, I'm gonna open a san'ich shop!"

Her simple ambition made him smile internally, and he privately hoped for her success.

"First watch?" She said politely.

"No need." Ainz said. "I am undead, I do not sleep. You may rest."

She grinned and laid herself down to rest using a bedroll that probably wasn't hers in the first place. Ainz sat and watched the fire and he watched her sleep. She slept fitfully, the sunny, bubbly, altogether unexpectedly childlike nature she'd exhibited was gone entirely. Instead she tossed and turned and cried, there were names he didn't recognize that made it past her lips. She was sweating, caught in the grip of memory and pain and loss. It was pitiable to behold, and the human part of himself wanted to wake her, but given their brief association, waking up to the face of a skeleton was probably not for the best. So he simply watched over her. Besides, he had another concern, someone was approaching.

"I know you're there, and believe me when I say that this is your only chance to stay alive, withdraw or perish." He said into the darkness, and he got up and turned around, revealing his skeletal form and his piercing red eyes glowed in the darkness, there was a sound of retreat, but he knew someone was still there. "If you're not going to withdraw with your fellows, you may as well come out." He said, and out of the darkness stepped a minotaur.

"You're a bold one. Or are you suicidal?" Ainz asked.

The minotaur snorted. "They're cowards, but I want the meat you've got with you skeleton, and I'll snap your bones to get it."

"Very well. Come snap my bones." He said.

The minotaur took a step forward, and Ainz said, "Gravity well." And the minotaur had only one moment of awe and terror, because the increased gravity turned him into a paste and depressed the ground by several feet.

"Stupid beast." Ainz said, and returned to his seat. The remainder of the night was peaceful, and Vanysa woke up and found herself drenched in sweat.

"You did not sleep well I think." Ainz said, his voice very matter of fact.

"Nah, ah didn't. Don't know what ah dreamed though." She looked at herself covered in sweat. She blushed and bent the knee before Ainz. "Sire, can'ah take a moment to change?"

"Of course." He said, and turned his back.

He heard the sound of rustling clothing as the woman behind him stripped away her simple tunic and threw on a fresh one. "Kay, I'm ready." She said and he turned back, she gave him her toothy grin again and it was as if the night's rest had been good after all, she stowed away the sweaty clothing and then, somewhat embarrassed, lifted her arm, tilted her head down, and sniffed. "God I stink." She said, "I'm sorry if me smell offends you sire, ain't exactly got a place to bathe here. Promise I'll do that at the next stop."

Ainz was glad he could not blush, he simply nodded, her peasant coarseness was charming in its way, but that was a bit much for the fastidious Ainz.

"The next city will have something I am sure." He said, "But so that it does not get...worse..." He cast a summon undead spell, and two undead horses appeared. "Do you know how to ride?" He asked.

"It won't kill me?" She asked with some trepidation.

"As long as I don't order it to, no." He answered.

"Aye, ah can ride, not like cavalry soldier or nuthin but ah can ride good'nuff."

She got on the undead horse with some hesitation, and they began to eat up ground, as it turned out the next city was not as easily reached as a morning walk, and instead they did not arrive until after noon.

When they got to the walls there was atrocity waiting. Humans were tied to crosses, naked on the walls themselves, they were obviously being baked under the heat, and they were, to Ainz's keen sight, clearly having trouble breathing. Given their previous habits, he guessed that this was part of a meal preparation. As they came closer, the guards saw them and called out, these were mostly minotaurs, but there were boar men as well, and the calls that reached Ainz were threatening and demanding, and Ainz had no patience for it today.

He summoned his messenger demons, and they flew over the walls and screamed like banshees to draw every ear. "The great one has come to purge the beastmen of this city. You will in his mercy, be given two minutes to make peace with whatever gods you follow, and then you will be slaughtered!"

The purple faced demon heads flew to every part of the city, screaming this message repeatedly, and then they vanished as if they were never there.

Ainz waited, and patiently counted out one hundred and twenty seconds. There was a moment of silence, and then a flurry of activity, followed a moment later by laughter, clearly they had counted out their two minutes faster than he did, as when they thought it had ended and nothing had happened, it had been a simple bluff. But Ainz was not bluffing.

A blue orb enveloped him, light like that of an angel surrounded his body, and Vanysa was sure she was looking at a god as it expanded, circles took shape under his feet and flew around his arms as they spread wide open, as if in sympathy for the crucified humans on the walls, for their part, they watched the spectacle with awed expressions, for a moment forgetting their pain as they looked at what they were sure was divine intervention, they had the best view of the city, though perhaps it is fair to say that they neither appreciated nor wanted that. "Super tier magic...Hunting Flame!" And then from where he stood, thousands of fireballs shot into the air and arced over the walls. "Do you want to watch them die?" Ainz asked.

"Aye ah do sire." She said with a grin. And she followed him as he walked to the gate, 'Greater break item' he said, and the gate shattered and he passed through to the interior. That was when she saw what hell looked like. The fireballs Ainz sent out had each locked on to a beastman as a target, and they followed that particular beastman and no other. If a beastman stopped and the fireball caught up to him or her, it began to burn their body with agonizing slowness, the flame spreading over the flesh and searing deeper into the body, spreading out from nonlethal parts first, and ironically cauterizing the wounds so that the victim would not bleed to death. If a beastman ran like a bat out of hell, the fireball chased them with almost the same speed, it became immediately obvious as they saw the fleeing figures everywhere, that the fireballs were torturing them, going just fast enough to force a tiring run, but not fast enough to catch up. As the beastman slowed, so did the fireball, if the beastman stopped or fell, then the fire caught and consumed them. The screams were like honey to the human captives, who though fearful at first, realized they were being completely ignored, and their fear became exultation.

Some of the beastmen tried to hide, but their hiding places were burned up and they with them, some tried to throw water at the flames, but it did nothing, others tried throwing humans at the flames, for the flame to simply buffer the human and lower them safely...and then resume the pursuit.

Vanysa began to laugh, it started as a giggle, and became full blown hilarity to her, she slapped her knees and watched with frothing mouth as her greatest desire was right before her eyes. "Burn! Yes burn! Burn from the wrath of god! Burn you sick fucks!" She laughed and laughed and laughed...while the minotaurs and boar men screamed and burned and ran.

"What city was this called?" Ainz asked curiously.

"Hearthlight." She said with a smile, appreciating the irony of the light bearing flames burning up their tormentors. A minotaur nearby happened to fall, and the fire caught him at the hoof, that was the last moment he did not know pain, as the hooves were both caught, and burned away, and the flame began burning its way up his legs, in desperation, he crawled, dragging himself as if he could escape the flames that way, until he was at the feet of Vanysa & the Sorcerer King. He desperately grabbed at the Sorcerer King's robe.

"Please...no more...make it stop..." He managed to get out through gargles of pain and shrieks as it drew nearer his waist.

"You dare touch him! You're not fit for that!" She said with a cackling glee and brought her foot down on his hand and then again on his nose, pain atop pain, he wailed and pleaded for forgiveness he would never get as the flames burned their way to his waist, and Ainz looked on with indifference. The fires slowed when it hit the waist, this spell was made for suffering. The eyes went white with pain as foam and spittle flew from the minotaur's mouth.

Ainz looked away and watched without a word as two boar men were running towards an intersection, one going one way, one the other, each not aware that the other was around the corner until they collided. They tried to rise from the tangle of limbs that they found themselves in, but the flames caught them first, and they screamed as their tails caught and began to burn.

Ainz began to walk the city streets, it was as casual as if it were just an afternoon stroll, the screams of the beastmen would have been pitiable if he did not know the nature of the beings that made them. Vanysa seemed to have no more pity for them than he did, though she perhaps went farther, and occasionally threw some random object in the way of a beastman to trip him up and allow the ball of fire chasing him to catch up and consume him. When one was fallen and already burning, she approached and added extra agony by throwing kicks and punches at the wounded beast, it was cruel...but Ainz said nothing, he was sure it was richly deserved. Gradually the noise of the city began to die as its targeted occupants did, and eventually there was only one fireball still active. "Mass fly." He said, and both he and Vanysa rose into the sky.

"Ah! Whas appenin! Whas goin on, why'm ah floatin?!" She said and flailed around, turning herself upside down and trying to grab at the ground, she began to kick her legs and swing her arms from in front of her to her side as if she were struggling to 'swim' back to the ground.

"Be at ease." Ainz said, "We are under my control, we are flying above the city, there is still one surviving beastman, and I want to find him." Ainz looked around, and saw a dot moving down the center of a street, "That would be him." Vanysa had noticably calmed down, and Ainz took her by the hand and drew her gradually down to the ground into the path the remaining beastman would have to cross. When they landed, Ainz simply stood and waited, watching the direction he had predicted the figure would run, and he was not disappointed. The beastman came jogging, or perhaps 'shuffling' around the corner, it wasn't a swift sprint, but rather a slow steady motion designed to preserve his energy. 'An intelligent one', Ainz reasoned.

As the beastman saw them, he bellowed his frustration, but neither picked up nor slacked off on his pace. "Do you want to live?!" Ainz shouted.

"Yeeeeeesss!" the beastman shouted, it was on closer inspection, a minotaur, large and thickly muscled, probably in his prime.

"Then come and kneel at my feet and I will cancel the spell. I have a use for you!" He shouted to the terrified and increasingly tired figure.

The minotaur, desperate beyond all reason, rushed to Ainz and descended to both knees, gasping for air, the flame that had been pursuing him, went past and returned to the open palm of Ainz Ooal Gown's hand.

"You live for one reason, to dispatch a message. If I find that the message was not received when I arrive, I will release this flame again, and though you hide at the bottom of the sea or the ends of the world itself, this flame will always find you." The minotaur nodded, numb with terror, Vanysa looked somewhat disappointed that she wouldn't get to see him burn, but she remained quiet as she bounced on her heels with her arms folded behind her back, like a much amused child.

Ainz tried very hard not to notice the way her breasts were bouncing with her playful motion, and instead focus on the task at hand.

"You will go to the next city, you will inform them of the fate of Hearthlight, and inform them that I have also exterminated the beastmen of Ha'ak Pale. If every human taken in this invasion which is still alive is not released, and returned to human lands from that city, from the beastman kingdom, and from the surrounding villages, I will continue to exterminate your kind until it is done. Do you understand?" Ainz asked, his noble voice carrying the will of death itself, the Minotaur had absolutely no doubt that the being before him was capable of exactly what he promised.

"It will be done." He said breathlessly, "But may I ask what name to give them when they ask from whom this message comes?"

"You may tell them it comes from the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown. Now get out." He said, and the minotaur rose to his feet, only to be knocked on his ass by a back handed blow from the skeletal king.

"NO! You do not walk out of this city as if you have pride or dignity, crawl out in shame, or I will find another way to deliver me warning." Ainz snarled out, his mood was rapidly turning vicious, and the beastman, in terror of his life, meekly went to all fours and crawled out with his head down, his pride forever ruined.

"Now, Vanysa..." He looked to her to see stars in her eyes and she bounced from one foot to the other, her hands clasped together with joy, kicking one leg up into the air behind her after the other with utter happiness.

"That was amazing, my lord you are amazing!" She said, her winsome voice more fitting to winning a contest than exterminating a city...but he was not one to contest the praise.

"Vanysa, go, and start to release the humans of this city, tell them to help and get everyone free, then to gather at its amphitheater, I believe I saw one when we were taking a bird's eye view.

"It will be done my lord!" Vanysa said with utter glee, and darted to the nearest human she could find, skipping at a surprising pace.

**AN: Well this one was fun, a hearty and well deserved break from the heavy tone of 'God Rising' if I do say so myself. I hope you liked the new character of 'Vanysa' who will make a small appearance in the next chapter of 'God Rising'. She actually was originally meant to be a more serious and better educated character, but I thought it would be more fun to have someone winsome along the way, and perhaps just a little bit crazy. Like Mihoshi from the Tenchi Muyo series, but with a hint of insanity to her, and somewhat more intelligent, if uneducated. **

**The Taming of the Beasts will NOT be a long story, perhaps only around five chapters, and is really just doing two things, explaining what happened before God Rising that lead Queen Draudillon to know the things she did and give Ainz the deal she did...and to give me personally a break from the increasingly dark tone of our traumatized lead characters and the run up to the war to shape the new world. Plus...yes it is TRUE that 'god rising' is not meant to showcase Ainz's insane power, but I LOVE that...soooo...here's my chance to indulge that to my satisfaction. Yes the main story will have an example or three, but that won't be a first use thing. **

**Anyway, reviews are welcome. Nay necessary! **

**LAST but not least...I can be bribed to increase chapter release rates by way of donations to my charitable organization, bdgiving dot org. I can never say no to charity, so if you ever don't want to wait on the minimum review count challenges, well if people donate and tell me they've done so in order to get the early release...well everybody wins. :) **


	4. Lessons Hard and Soft

When the people gathered per the direction of Ainz, he took a different direction, allowing Vanysa to take the role of introducing him. So he jotted down a few notes and handed them to her behind the stage, only for her to look at them as if they were pointless scribblings. She looked up at him, "Ahma sorry sire," she said, shaking as she realized she was going to fail him. "Ah can't read."

Ainz paused. "Oh. Well then that is something we shall have to remedy, isn't it?" He asked, her shaking froze and she looked up at him in surprise.

"Any good servant should be able to read the instructions of their master. Wing it for now, and we will begin our lessons tonight." He said.

She nodded, and her bouncy nature returned, she fairly lept out in front of the masses and leaned over facing them, and raised one finger to tell them to be silent."

"Hiya!" She had a radiant smile on. "As ya mighta noticed, all the monsters, they're kinda crispy!" That drew a round of cheers and clearly some were sobbing in disbelief.

"Taint but one left an he's gonna die too!" That lead to another round of cheers as she let that sentence out in the sweetest way she could, like a child announcing Christmas or showing off a lolipop she'd been given.

"See he's alive b'cause he's gotta message to deliver, ta tell the monsters to go away or they're next! Now wouldja like to hear from the one ta do all that?!" She asked the crowd.

They cheered. Ainz listened as she hyped him up, she was actually very good, in a peasant kind of way, but then, such was her audience.

"Well b'fore he comes out, guess I should tell yah, see he's not much fer breathin, bein an undead king and all, so don't be to scared, b'cause even though he's verrrry scary, he's come ta help us all, kay!" She bounced aroundon the stage with childlike energy as she spoke, he wondered just how many years the beastmen had knocked out of her head, but it played well.

"Master! Will ya come speak to them, I know they'll listen!" She said, turning behind and fairly wiggling with anticipation.

Ainz saw this from where he stood and was fairly sure that Albedo & Shalltear would want to tear the girl apart for being a temptress.

Her perky demeanor seemed so at odds with everything that the preparation laid out for him was almost enough to throw him off, but after years of this, he was now accustomed to speaking before the public, and he instead generated oohs and ahhhs instead of terror, thanks he was sure, to Vanysa's unusual introduction.

"I am Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom." He let that sink in for a moment, and then he continued. "Now, as my servant has stated, the beastmen are gone from this city, just as they are gone from Ha'ak Pale. Tomorrow I move on to the next city, having dispatched their lone survivor to warn them to release your brethren and withdraw. If they disobey, they will all die." There were cheers at that statement.

He raised his hands to call for silence. "I have come here because your queen sought my aid, she has all but ruined herself trying to save you, and now saved you are...but you cannot remain here! You will have to leave this city and move towards your capitol. There are beastmen in the villages, and when they do not find that they are getting 'shipments' to them for sustenance, they will come to this city looking for answers, if they find you, well then I have saved no one. Here are my rules that you WILL follow." His voice grew firm and uncompromising, "Whether you be noble or peasant I do not care, these apply to all. Nobody carries more than what they need, persons can carry survival goods for others, however the very old, the very young, the pregnant, and the sick take precedence. I will be calling forth one of those capable of healing to care for any injuries that you may have, but those who are not injured must prepare to go. Carts will follow at the back of the line of walk, and should only be used for those who can no longer move under their own power. The strongest and fastest should rush ahead and alert any forthcoming assistance as to the direction of your line of march. Are there any questions?" He asked.

"Why are you doing this?" Someone said with breathless awe.

"Power exists to be put to use for the benefit of the whole, not merely for the selfish benefit of the powerful themselves, that is my justice, and that is why I am here. The beastmen have forgotten this, if they ever knew it, and have made themselves into true monsters, so they will be humbled for their misdeeds." Ainz said, his voice taking on the philosophical voice of an educator.

"We have little more time, and every minute is precious, go, gather your things and prepare to move." He said to the crowd, letting his voice carry to the very back, and when they began to rise, and move as directed, Ainz turned to Vanysa. "Very well done. Most of the time I have to spend some time easing the crowd's fear of me."

She grinned widely, "Ah just did whatcha said, an it worked out didnit?" She bounced away with her customary skip with her arms at her sides and her palms out, happy to be praised, "C'n I go get somthin to eat sire, the smell of all that cooked meat sure is good fer the appetite!" He saw the flash of sadism in her candy like eyes, and he nodded in approval.

"Go, eat, but wherever you go, be at the gate in the morning at sunrise or I will leave without you." Ainz said with mock seriousness, prompting a giggle from the girl, and she skipped away with hands behind her back, her golden hair bouncing around behind her, and her ample breasts bouncing in front of her, drawing eyes from men who had their first positive distraction since their nightmare began. With her eyes closed with happiness, she skipped to the nearest well cooked beastman corpse and started cutting up some meat.

"Who's eatin who now?" She grinned at the corpse. "Heh, almost not even madatcha, if I tasted as good as you do, I'd eat me too!" She giggled as she cut the shoulder meat off a minotaur that lay sprawled where he fell. There was another corpse under his feet, obviously he'd tripped over it, fallen, and then been consumed by the fire. She stared at the body, madness filled her eyes for a moment as a memory came flooding back...

"Run away! I'll hold it off!" A boy with wavy brown hair and skin as fair as sunlight, with a smile as warm as a summer day and a freckled face, shouted over his shoulder at her as he recklessly charged a minotaur with nothing but a kitchen knife. The blow of the minotaur knocked the boy senseless, then the minotaur had grabbed his legs and he shouted for her to run again, but there was nowhere to go, and she froze as the minotaur grabbed each ankle and ripped his legs wide apart, so that they were a straight line, tearing numerous muscles and tendons, before dropping one and twisting between the knee and the ankle, so that the leg snapped and he would not escape. That was when she fainted, when she woke up, she was bound and saw his face...in the hands of a rat man that had cut it off, and was presently chewing on it as she watched.

The memory retreated and she shook her head, and she resumed cutting into the meat, the blood, far from bothering Vanysa, felt...so very good.

There was nothing really for Ainz to do at this point, so he walked the streets and watched as people prepared for their departures, many were cutting up beastmen corpses for meat for the trip, others were preparing bedrolls, still others were loading extra supplies into carts, in a way it was inspiring, seeing them all work together that way.

Such a shame that such cooperation required such dire circumstances. As he walked the streets he could see the wealth had been hoarded by a powerful handful, while the majority of homes were barely livable hovels, his red orbed eyes narrowed as he saw how poor the city must have been, how divided between the nobility and the peasants.

As he contemplated this, he found Vanysa around a fire smoking some meat with other peasants and explaining the wonders of the 'sandwich'. When he saw her, he called out, "Vanysa, walk with me will you?"

It was phrased as a question, but the tone said that it was not. The other peasants looked up in awe, but he paid them no mind, and she bounced up like a rabbit and spun around. "Course m'master!" She said cheerfully as he began to walk down a narrow road, she fell in step beside him.

"Tell me, what is life like in these cities?" He asked. "You were a city girl, were you not?"

"Aye ah am sir, is nota good life ah can tell ya that. See the kingdom's gotah lota trouble, people get called up ta fight, they don't come home or come home with their arms missin if they lucky, an they live on tha streets cause they ain't got no money an ain't nobody hirin people what can't do normal work no more." She had her hands held behind her and her voice had a bizarre mix of chipper and depressed, the happiness of being alive and safe, the sadness of the state of her people, it was very strange to hear.

"Are the veterans not provided for?" He asked.

"We gots the temples, they gives some food out an all, but it ain't like healin potions grow'n trees is it? An lots of em who come back...when we lucky an there is lots of em...well they comes back with ther eads all messed up, screamin in the night an startlin at every sound, a dog's bark'r a bird's call or even see'in a cows orns an they cry'n collapse n'can't do nothin. So they can't work but they needta eat right? Well so lots of em beg on the streets, the temples, we gots some gooduns, but they still don't eal for free, the Queen, she tries ta pay fer it, but ain't got enough for all, an then the beastmen comin back...well so to make it easy, the lords, they run things. The taxes got high an most people can't really own nuthin, so the lords own all the land so we don't pay no taxes, but then they own everthing so we can't work cept for them. Nobody can tell em no, not even the Queen, cuz she needs em to help fight the beastmen. So wha'ever appens to us...well we stuck tween a rock and an ard place." She said in frustration.

"I see, so the wealth is concentrated with the nobles, they control all the means of administration, including the justice system, giving them a monopolistic control over the entire kingdom economy and they tax everything and everyone else out of existence to keep money flowing up, limiting the care and services that can be provided to everyone else, and stifling anyone else who tries to start up a new business and build up their wealth independently without cooperating with the existing cooperative monopolies." Ainz said as he put it into terms he'd learned reading economics texts. "Then because they control the production and distribution of goods, they can set prices and prohibit competition, which the Queen can't prevent because they're vital to national defense."

"Aye thas...I think...what'ah said iddnit?" She said quizically.

"I'm going to have to make time to talk with your Queen about how her economic policies are undermining her nation's ability to protect itself. Though sadly things being what they are, it may be awhile before I can do so." Ainz said as they walked past a particularly depressing looking hovel.

"What'd you do diffint?" She asked curiously.

"Well for starters..." he sighed, this was tough to explain, so he reached into his pocket dimension and pulled out a loaf of bread. "Her view of wealth seems to be like this, let us say that this loaf of bread represents all the present wealth in the kingdom, by hoarding it all in one place she has access to a pool of resources to draw from for national defense, thus she allows an oligarchy like arrangement in her economy, with a few holding sway over the greatest part of the wealth." Ainz then tore a few pieces off and handed them to Vanysa. "Each little bit torn off represents an expenditure, with only a small part going to you in the peasant population, and her view seems to be that what is used, is lost, and in a way, she is right, because that small bit only sustains you, it does not allow your growth or prosperity, and it is arranged in such a way that this little bit you receive, must come back into the whole, because you are having to buy food and other goods from the same people who essentially own you." He took the pieces back and stuck it back on to the loaf.

"However, this view of wealth as if the total amount of money were static and unchanging, is false. Instead of a single static loaf that remains unchanged, it is far more productive to see it like a garden, where seeds planted from one, will grow into many and produce much more of itself. Suppose you began your sandwich shop, you require space to run it, you require ingredients to make it, and you may even require an employee or two in order to help run the place. You have created an increased demand for goods, and when you pay your employees, they use that money for their own ends, buying goods and services in turn, which then creates a need for new employees in other businesses to meet their needs." Ainz stroked his chin for a moment as he watched her grow wide eyed. "Each expenditure of a small sum, creates greater than the larger sum, and the flow of money becomes multi-directional, instead of simply flowing up and enriching a few, it becomes more like vines growing on a tree, always finding new niches and places to grow and opportunities to achieve. If the Queen instead used her government to promote openness by limiting barriers to trade and allowing people to invest in themselves and pursue wealth on more or less their own terms, there could be many growing wealthy, not by exploiting the poor, but by serving them and lifting them out of their current poverty." His voice vaguely reminded him of his dear friend who worked as a teacher, he mentally laughed and wondered what he'd think of Ainz now if he could hear him.

"Her judicial system should enforce fair contracts, dismantle exploitative organizations that oppress, abuse, and manipulate those who they are meant to serve and those whom they employ. Instead with her fixation on stability her national economy has become stagnant, its no wonder she is running out, she has crafted an economic system that simply cannot grow. There is nothing wrong with growing wealthy or turning a profit in coin, however when this pursuit of wealth becomes directly harmful through corruption, manipulation, and fraud, it hurts the entire population in the long run, therefore strong legal repercussions should exist that prevent economic tyranny by a few and ensures justice for those who buy from or produce for such organizations. If this were done, then her tax base would increase over time as wealth began to be 'farmed' from a larger pool of producers, and instead of one static loaf, it grows and grows and grows, this would in turn do a much more effective job of funding her military budget." Ainz said, and tossed the loaf back in to his pocket dimension.

"If I were to guess, her nobles constantly lobby for laws that ensure their continued dominance and oppose anything that provides common relief or limits their ability to draw more wealth from the population, and the more poor the population becomes, the more desperate they are to continue this process because the amount available to extract is always less. If the beastmen invasions were not constantly culling the population, quite frankly you'd have had mass starvation as the state failed to provide relief from the increased costs always being imposed on you." Ainz concluded. "Does that make sense."

Vanysa looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "No eh?" He asked.

He looked at her a moment and saw what his old friend once described as, 'seeing the light go on'. As she scrunched up her face and thought about it, he saw a dawning of vague understanding emerge on her face. "I get it, is like seeds, I gots ten apples and you take all of em, ain't gettin no apples next time, but if I plants em an they grow trees, an people buy em an plant more trees, well apples get cheaper cause there lots of em, an everybody can buy em, so people spend more money on other stuff, an that means with all that money growin, why when you need ten apples, you can get em every time cause they everywhere an always growin, somethin like that?" She asked with a beaming smile.

"You begin to understand." He said with a grin his face could not show.

"Now, you go get some rest, we're leaving in the morning and I am going to watch from the top of the wall, I want to see if we have any visitors." Ainz said.

"But weren't you goin to teach me ta read t'night?" She asked in disappointment.

"Ah yes, we will, but later, for now get some early rest, when you wake well before the dawn, come see me at the wall, I will begin to instruct you." He said kindly.

"Appily mah savior!" she said and left his side. She skipped off quite happily, humming a jaunty tune as her eyes danced merrily, she giggled when she came across a beastman corpse, and she hopped on its head and jumped off like a kid skipping over a rock. "Intelligent girl, shame she's not educated. Looking forward to see what she does with it once she's got it."

Ainz made his way to the wall and sat there, between the two towers where defenders had obviously died brutally in a desperate defense. They hadn't bothered to clean up the mess, and both blood and bones were scattered about. The bones had been snapped to get at the marrow, and the marks on those bones indicated that they'd suffered very violent ends. Ainz had become innured to violence over the course of his time in the new world, but he didn't enjoy it for its own sake, and some behaviors still sickened him, and some people he was happy to kill. The beastmen had earned his disgust and his ire, and though he lacked a firm connection to humanity, this went over the line for him in some profound ways, not least because despite everything, he retained his connection to the memory of his mother and her desparation. The violation of such a connection brought out his sadistic streak, and the more he thought on it, the angrier he got, it was only because of his emotional dampener that he was able to control himself at all, but no sooner than he was calmed, than his wrath built up again.

That was why it was a great pity for the beastmen who arrived when they did, he had just been calmed, and his wrath was rising once more, and then there they came, five thousand fully armed beastmen, moving in the darkness as if to take the city by surprise. His message had clearly been recieved and had not been believed.

He sat on the wall and drummed his fingers on the stone as they approached, "I see you over there, there is no point in trying to be stealthy." He shouted, and they halted in surprise. Realizing it was pointless, one of them used some kind of magic item that brightened the night, as if hoping to intimidate him with numbers.

"You received my message I assume!" Ainz shouted, his legs kicked idly as if bored by the whole thing as he sat on the stone crenelation.

"We did, and this is ours!" one of them, a strange beastman covered with feathers said loudly.

"Message received." Ainz said simply.

"You're going to run away? You think we'll let you!" The bird creature laughed.

"No, I'm going to kill all of you." Ainz answered, and before the thing could ask how, he pointed to the center of the formation, "Fire of Sainai!" He shouted, and a pillar of flame shot down from above and struck where he pointed, incinerating several hundred beastmen, he then began to guide the flame with his finger, dragging it across the beastman line. The shrieks were palpable as they tried to respond by throwing rocks, but as Ainz noticed, they really didn't have much in the way of projectiles. They were close up predators, claws, talons, only a handful, mainly apemen, seemed to have hands suitable for gripping, as he noticed the way they moved their arms, it was clear that they were meant for swinging, this was excellent for powerful blows, but very poor for throwing, their arms just could not 'hook' quite right, and as a result they were almost helpless against the devestating pillar of flame Ainz had called down from a distance, it spun like a tornado and drew others into it like a vacuum as it moved at his direction, when most of the punitive expedition was dead, that was when their spirits broke, and he cast an additional spell, 'auto target, beastmen' he snapped out, and his current spell began to move on its own, chasing them down one by one. Ainz laughed, if the city they came from was lucky, none of these were capable of running all the way to it before that caught up. If it killed them all quickly, then there would be nothing to target nearby and the spell would disappear on its own a few minutes later. If however, one of these beastmen managed to outrun it all the way to the city, then it would have many more targets to pursue and the killing would be greatly expanded and begin all over again.

It was when he lost interest in this that Vanysa approached and watched the pillar of flame as the light died, she saw how it sucked up beastmen and burned off their flesh down to the bones, and she giggled with glee and clapped her hands and bounced up and down at their suffering, when the light was gone and she could only see one or two at a time die, she stood next to the seated Sorcerer king, went down to both knees, lowered herself slowly to all fours, then lowered her head to the stone, prostrated before him. "Yah gots the powers and knowin of a god, so yah gotta be a god." She said from her prostrate position, "Nuthin else could knowin all the stuff yah know, and be doin the stuff ya do, yer my god, not them other ones that do nothin." She said, it was not the eloquence of Neia Baraja, who had some education to her name, but it shared her sincerity.

Ainz chose not to dispute her assertion, but instead he bade her to rise as he opened his pocket dimension and drew out a book he had assembled based on the version he knew of in his own world. When she got up, but only to her knees, he held it out to her, he then used a light producing stone and held it out. "This book is called 'D is for dog'." He said, and he began to read to her, explaining each letter of the alphabet of the new world, while beastmen screamed for mercy they would not get, a human girl learned to read by way of light given from her god's will.

She grew so enthralled that she no longer heard the screams except as white noise, and did not even notice when they faded to nothing as the last beastman died.

**AN: Well this was fun. You'll note that there's a double release today. (There will also be another double release the next day because of yet another donation) The reason for that is that two readers chose to donate to my charity organization, and therefore he was entitled to a double chapter release as promised. One for this one, and one for God Rising. Every time somebody donates, I'll work double time and do a double release that day, maybe two for this one, maybe one for each, maybe two for that one, but I will be a blitzkrieg of writing in return for support for my other project. And just so you know, I don't take a penny out of it, not one cent goes to me. I keep just enough held back in the account to keep banking fees at bay and to cover any fees I'm assessed by the state. Everything else is put to good use because money means fuck all to me, its just a tool, a means to an end.**

**And to answer another question, the beastmen don't really 'have' to eat humans I don't think, they may rely on a meat diet, however lots of animals are made of meat. :) So transitioning them to a more peaceful coexistence should be feasible. And yes, Actor of Pandora is correct, frankly this will probably run for about twice as many chapters as I initially said, I've found reason to expand my outline for it, it'll still be short relative to God Rising, but then...that one is very large.**


	5. A Taste of Revenge & French Onion Dip

Vanysa took enthusiastically to her new book, and she clutched it to her like a child did a teddy bear when the lesson was over. She'd read her first word, "Cat". And then she'd asked, "Ow do I spell 'Sor'cer King'" She said as she looked up at him with awe on her face.

He wrote the letters down patiently. Had her reference her book, and had her write them out many times.

"We'll work on it some more at the next city." Ainz said, "Go make sure that people are either going or gone, and meet me at this entrance, I'll wait for a bit." He said.

"Yer not leavin me r'ya?" She asked hesitantly, "If'n ya tell me ya don't need m'no more...tha I'm a botha...salright, yah did s'much an..." Her eyes began to well up as she backed away.

"Hurry." Ainz said, and he walked down the stairs as she rushed off to check on the departures.

When he walked out of the gate he leaned against the wall, mentally he was dual minded, he was exhausted in a sense, but at the same time he was really enjoying himself and his 'vacation' from all the paperwork waiting back in Nazarick.

"I'm a terrible boss." He said out loud to himself as he contemplated all that paper on the desks of Demiurge & Albedo.

"Well at least this is good for us. And I have to admit...Vanysa is an...interesting one." He said, her bouncy energy was energizing and her enthusiasm refreshing. But the glimpses beneath...it was like a sea of madness was just bubbling up in her brain, kept at bay by some serious form of head trauma, be it emotional, physical, or both.

Still he preferred not to go without her at this point, she was easy to get used to.

Some time later, he saw her burst out the gate running like a foal that has found its legs and proved them to be good, she ran so quickly that she passed the portcullis and did not even notice Ainz standing against the wall beside it. She looked left and right frantically and when she did not see him, she fell to her knees and let her arms flop to her side. Even from behind he thought she was going to start crying.

"Why are you down there, tough to ride like that isn't it?" Ainz asked as he summoned another pair of undead horses for the two of them.

She jumped up and spun around, and if she had a sad expression on her face, he didn't see it now. She bouncd up on one leg, kicking the other behind her and waved a cheery, "Hya yer majesty! Thought I'done lost yah!" She skipped over and hopped on the horse, while Ainz mounted the one beside her, and they rode off down the long road.

It was quiet for awhile, but it felt...boring even with beautiful scenery, to simply say nothing while with someone else, so he asked her, "What do you think you'll do after this?"

He remembered his travel time with Neia, how he'd thoughtlessly asked about her dead parents, and he did not want to do that with someone who was obviously already damaged, so instead he focused on the future.

"Ah toldja dinnt ah? Gonna open up a sanich shop!" She grinned.

"What'll you call it?" He asked her.

She touched her forefinger to her chin and looked upwards in thought, 'Teats and meats'? She asked, and turned in his direction and 'wiggled'. Ainz's jaw dropped.

"Can tha undead be pervy sire?" She asked with a kittenish smile on her face.

Ainz wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Ah knew a pervy once, ad a store, kep pet bear an named it Yeddet. Got ate to, snuggled it one tam to manny an ah tole im not too!" She laughed, leaving Ainz with no idea whether she was joking or not, so he pretended to laugh and let it pass.

"Ah say its good tah know." She said with an almost smug smile on her face as they rode.

"Good to know what?" He asked.

"Ah good servant yah know, I don know much ahbout it, but ah thin a good servant supposed to know what'r master likes yeah?" She gave him a knowing look, and Ainz prayed that neither Albedo or Shalltear were using the mirror of remote viewing on him right now because if they were...it would be hell to pay.

He was...glad of the silence that followed as she hummed a little tune with a satisfied smile on his face. They rode for hours before they heard something other than the normal noises of the birds and the wind in the trees. For Ainz...that by itself was a wonder, his own world's wrecked state was not forgotten, so this unspoilt nature was like an eternal garden, one he would not allow to be destroyed. The noise they heard was that of argument. It was from around a corner, and it had suddenly stopped as they came close enough that their horses could be heard.

"Stay here." Ainz said, and she went quiet and nodded, Ainz trotted his horse further around the bend, there he found a pandaman, an alligatorman, and a bearman. They had obviously been arguing over a cart, there was a wheel broken and laying in the dirt and a human lay dead a few feet away, his arms torn from his torso, he had obviously bled to death in terror and pain, two more cowered in the dirt, their wrists were chained to the front of the cart, a quick glance told Ainz they had been used as beasts of burden, pushing the cart from the crossbar they were chained to, whether by accident or intent the wheel went into a hole and snapped on impact. That one had clearly suffered the punishment for it.

The cart however was more interesting, because it was obviously not an ordinary cart, rather than being open in the back for simplicity, it had walls around it and a small door, and noises and crying could be heard from within, human voices. When Ainz came around the corner on his horse, they turned to face him, whatever they had expected, he was not it.

Ainz was the first to speak. "Release them and it will be quick. Refuse and it will be slow."

"Why, so you can eat em?" The alligatorman laughed, "They're ours." He finished.

"You got marrow in your bones still? Always wondered that about skeletons." The pandaman said.

"Well you're kind of cute." Ainz said. "I always liked pandas."

If the pandaman had skin, he would have blushed, he apparently didn't take it as a compliment.

The bearman seemed to think it was hilarious, and he immediately burst out laughing, throwing one arm to his chest as if to stop himself while pointing with his other hand to the pandaman. "Ha! He called you cute, the skeleton called you cute!"

"I'm...not...cute." He said flatly.

"Well that is a matter of relative taste." Ainz said.

"Nae sire, yah right, he' sacutie that'n." A voice said behind him that could be no other, not with that much bubbly cheerfulness to it, and he rolled his eyes.

"Did I not say to stay where you were?" Ainz asked.

She looked a little glum and put on a somewhat pouty face. "M'srry sire, jusscarry th'out you an...don wanna be'way." She pulled a firm and resolute expression as her face turned up to his. "Servan gots to stay w'master n'matter what! Humpf!"

He rolled the red orbs that served for eyes, and the beastmen seemed to take an interest briefly in their interplay, from inside the box like prison of the cart, voices were asking what was going on, shouting for help, only to still to a whimper again when the bearman pounded on the wall. "Quiet meat! An make room, we got another one to put in there with you!"

The bearman looked at Vanysa and licked his lips. "Bet you taste good, breast meat nice an soft, to good to eat raw, gotta cook you."

Ainz saw her freeze and guessed readily she was flashing back to the moment a bearman had held her upside down and licked at her skin. She started to shake, her bouncy eyes turned dull, and this did not please the Sorcerer King.

"Mass pain number five." Ainz said, and the tenor of their voices and the looks on their faces changed, at first it was nothing, then it was a wince, then the winces grew, as if they were first being 'poked' by pins, then stabbed by knives, and then it spread from a small part of their bodies, to all over their bodies, the three of them fell one by one, first to their knees.

"What...did you do?" The bearman asked.

Ainz looked down at them coldly. "I've killed you, one of the slowest ways I know how."

Horror filled their gazes. Ainz dismounted and approached the trio, it was clear they couldn't even strike at him, the pain was obviously growing as they clawed at the places that hurt, as if they could dig it out of their flesh like an arrow broken off within it. He knelt in front of them, "Did you know that you can die from pain? I'll bet you didn't know that, it takes a long time though, weeks, months, eventually the body just starts to destroy itself, the stronger you are, the longer it takes, and that is what is happening to you. See the pain isn't going to stop, its going to build...and build...and build, until the total amount of pain sensory data that your body can generate has been reached. Then you'll stay that way, the only way to stop it is for me to cancel the spell, or someone to cast a healing spell more powerful than the spell I used."

He went quiet, he watched them writhe on the ground for awhile, a question in their agony filled eyes.

"You want to know how powerful a spell? You are thinking maybe you can crawl your body to the nearest healer?" the expressions on their faces said that this was what they hoped.

"Do you have anyone who can use eighth tier magic? Because that was seventh." He said.

They knew enough about magic at least to look on in horror as they understood what was going to happen.

Ainz looked over his shoulder, Vanysa's eyes had started to return to normal as they made noises of pain. "Vanysa?" Ainz called, and she got off her horse, and bounced over in her favorite way, with her gingerly skips and cheerful toothy smile. "Hi hi sire, whatcha need?"

"Feeling better?" He asked. She looked down at the beastmen, and Ainz saw an overjoyed expression on her face, but she didn't say anything, she looked at them and her smile grew and changed, her expression looked almost lustful.

"Ayam." She said with a giggle, the beasts on the ground were now in to much pain to cry out, their backs arched as their bodies tensed.

"No...more...pain..." One of them managed to beg.

"D'he say tha too?" She asked sweetly as she pointed to the dead man with the missing arms.

There was no mercy in her, she actually crouched over the bearman, looking him in his face. "Wancha to know somethin, sin yer gonna die and all, can't tell n'body. Yer kin, ya taste good too, I atecha before, an I'll eat nother, an whena get strong, gonna huntcha, gonna killya, allayah, t'aint never gonna be no bearmen left'n all th'world that ain't in a stew or shat out in a pile a'shit. Maybe yah be the last one left live, rottin ere in pain, an I come see'yah, cut some pieces off, ave some you stew right next'yah where yah can watch me eat yah shoulders, maybe yah be grateful, cuz if I eat yah shouldas then they aint gonna hurt n'more." She looked over him with wide, staring eyes that did not blink, they held only obsession and an endless light that for the first time in his life, left the bearman in a state of absolute terror.

"Wan'that, wan'somthin hurt less, 'll cut a toe off, that be kay?" She giggled over him, and stood back up, "Nah, yah stay there, I'll come see yah soon though, just lay quiet till then." She giggled and bounced over to Ainz and gave a pretty salute, then said, "S'rry there majesty, want'd ta say some stuff to the bearman there, what about these?" She asked, and touched the wall of the cart where human voices stirred again.

"Open it, but tell them not to run right away, I will be unhappy if they do." Ainz answered.

She skipped happily over to the back and put her face up to the barred window suddenly, startling the person nearest it back on his heels. "Hiya. I'm Vanysa, and guess what, its yer lucky day, yah get ta live, all cuzza mah god, he's helpin out the Queen and gettin rid of all them beastmen what been eat'in us all this time." She grinned.

"Are...are you mad?" The man asked, wondering if he was talking to a crazy person.

She cocked her head and gave a toothy grin, and insanity returned to her eyes for a moment. "Gee, maybe, but mad'r not yah still free, now I'm gonna open this thing and letcha out, but..." She stuck her arm through the bars all the way to the shoulder and wagged her finger back and forth, "absolutely no runnin away, m'master, he wants ta talk to yah first, K?" There were some nods from the trapped humans.

"Pinky promise?" She said, and raised her pinky, utterly befuddled, the prisoner nonetheless closed his pinky with hers.

"Kay! Be just a sec, member, yah promised me!" She stepped back down from where she was and unlatched the door, opening it, and allowing a batch of naked and not exactly well fed but not quite starving men and women to stumble out.

They saw the beastmen writhing on the ground and the man who had done the 'pinky promise' heedless of his nudity asked..."What is happening?"

Ainz over at them and said, "Oh, they're dying."

"Of what..." He asked in shock.

"Of pain. It will take a very long time, perhaps weeks, perhaps months, maybe even years, but it can never be cured and it will not stop until they die." Ainz said.

Several of the peasants fell to their knees in shock, but one, a woman, saw the body of the dead man and rushed over, "Jorin...no...no..." She grabbed the torso of the man and as she knelt, she pulled him in so that she was cradling him at the neck. "Jorin...no..." She said over and over and over again.

"Who are you?" One of the peasants asked.

"Ees mah savior, mah god, ees the Sorc'r King." Vanysa grinned leaned forward, "Didnah tell yah he's kinda scarry lookin?" She asked as fear of the undead began to dawn on them.

"He's a good'n though, th'Queen asked fer him tah help us, an he said yes." She grinned, it was an infectious smile, and the fear began to melt away.

"Thank you Vanysa, that will be all, I'll carry on from here." He said.

Ainz dutifully let the woman mourn whoever the dead man was, and spoke to the remainder, "I am on my way to the next of your cities to eliminate the beastmen there."

A hand went up. "Next?" The hand raiser asked when Ainz inclined his head in the woman's direction.

"Yes. I have already killed the beastmen at Ha'ak Pale and Hearthlight." He said.

This created a buzz of conversation that cut off when Vanysa bounced her way behind them and put her hands on two heads an said perky as she could, "Nuh uh, yah don' talk while god is, 'mkay?" She said, and much beffudled, and a little concerned, they went quiet.

"Now, can you tell me anything about what lies in the direction you came from?" Ainz asked.

The man who first spoke, answered immediately, "The city of Forton. There are...were...lots of us there, probably not lots now." He said with a sad expression, large place, once held over eighty thousand people."

"Why were you put to cart?" Ainz asked.

"They sound out small 'supplementary rations' to village occupiers, I overheard them talk about that much, but honestly I can't say anything else for sure." He said.

"Are you from Forton? Can you tell me anything special about it, entries, exits, types of beastmen there?" Ainz asked.

"I was, I was a clerk there working for the mayor, but as for layout, well it has only one gate facing away from the beastman border." He said thoughtfully, "But as to how many beastmen, I don't know."

Ainz nodded, "Good enough, travel on, head to Hearthlight and grab some clothing and whatever supplies were left behind, then head to your capitol as fast as you can."

"We will sire, and thank you." He said, and two of the women went to the mourner and gently got her to her feet, and slowly she moved on, bowing slightly to Ainz as she passed behind him.

When they were out of sight, and Ainz could see them no more, Vanysa bounced her way closer to Ainz and said, "Tha was fun, the panda still cute though. So fluffy." She said and bounded over to the panda and began to stroke his fur, adding the indignity to the pain, though if he was even aware of it, he gave no sign.

"I like fluffy." She said as she turned back to the Sorcerer King, still bent at the waist and petting the once terrifying beastman.

She blushed, "But, oh don thin that means I don like you sire, I like you alot." She said and skipped back over to him and prostrated herself in the dirt. "Yer mah god, I like cute n'fluffy," she said as her face hovered above the dust, "but yer m'god, you I gotsa to love, cause you gimme life 'gin."

Ainz sighed, "Would you like to eat now Vanysa? I can teach you another sandwich if you like. This one is called a roast beef with french onion dip."

She didn't rise from her prostrate position, but she did tilt her head up so that she was looking up from level with his feet. "Soun's great majesty, but uhhh..." She looked uncomfortable.

"Yes?" He asked curiously.

"Not that I don like doin this, yah d'serve it'n all, what with yah bein a god but..." She winced a little and shook her hips some in discomfort, "But it kinda hurts ta hold this position yah know..c'n I get up now, then yah can show me nother san'ich?"

He kept his 'Wuaaagh' entirely in his head as he sputtered approval for her to rise and again hoped that the mirror of remote viewing did not have Shalltear or Albedo at it just now.

She sprang up to her feet like a cat and gave him a mischievous wayward look, turning partially to one side and presenting a profile, she cocked her head slightly and asked... "Yah liked it though, didncha sire?"

He coughed into his hand and reached into his pocket dimension for the sandwich materials, and decided to leave that question unanswered while thinking... 'Please don't be at the mirror, please don't be at the mirror, please don't be at the mirror...'

**AN: Yes that is a shout out to the most constant and unforgettable reviewer on this site that I know of, ole pervy, his reviews always bring a laugh, which is highly valued to me this time of year. OF course as you've probably guessed, aside from the serious themes, this is my attempt at a bit of comedy to go along with it, Vanysa is a fun character to write for, she's funny, she's crazy, she's innocent and sadistic, and just a little bit dirty...honestly she'd make a good wife to Demiurge. 'lol' Anyway, reviews welcome so...enjoy! :) And of course, you can always get another double release by charitable donations. :)**

**ALSO: There was a problem with the 'God Rising' sequence. I missed uploading a chapter, and because the goddamn system is so crazy slow about fixing this crap, I could easily fix it, so I deleted the previous few chapters and then just readded them in the correct order with the missing chapter in place. So that is what was going on with that in case you're wondering. The update speed is crazy slow so it might take awhile, but that should fix everything.**


	6. Company Can Be Bittersweet

The Sorcerer King drew out the necessary ingredients and showed her how to make a roast beef sandwich and how to use it with a cup of french onion dip, and then he handed one over to her, and she looked at it funny. "Ees kinda like stew eh? Yeh take a bit a bread and dip it in tha stew and then yah gots stew on ya bread...but its not quite like tha is'it?"

Ainz was very much amused as she cocked her head to one side and looked at the little cup of dip in one hand while holding the sandwich in the other.

"Well, try it and see." He said. She shrugged and dipped the sandwich and took a bite, and her face lit up, she quickly did it again, and again, and again, until her cheeks were quite stuffed and she could barely make the smile she was trying to.

"Ish shooooo goooood!" She said as she arched her back, and threw her head up as she chewed she clenched her little fists as if she could scarcely stand it.

Ainz slapped his knee and laughed where he sat, cursing his emotional dampener when it kicked in.

She did the same thing twice more and then looked mystified at her now empty hands as if she could not understand where her sandwich had gone, she looked from one hand to the other and, finding only some of the dip remaining, she took it like a shot of hard liquor and drank it down too, then with a delighted 'mmmm' she licked her tongue all over the interior of the cup to take in every last bit of the flavor that she could find.

"Is yer majesty a god ah cookin?" She asked seriously.

"Pardon?" Ainz asked confused.

"Weeelll...ah couldn elp but notice that when yah kill the beasties, theys always good ta eat, an then ya gimmie these great thins, yah know I didn much get good food growin up, but even so, its lihk yah just know what perfect food is." She stretched out her legs where she sat and bounced them up and down off the dirt, a few yards away the beastmen had managed to scream, but it was cut off as suddenly as it began, neither Ainz nor Vanysa paid it any mind.

"No, I am not the god of cooking." Ainz said, adding another sentence to the list of statements he never saw him saying in all of eternity.

"Well, howdja know how good that was?" She asked.

Her hands went to her side and rested on the rock on which she sat, and she kicked her legs up and down while she leaned forward in anticipation of his answer.

Ainz reflected that she was probably leaning forward that much on purpose, just to find an excuse to ask if gods could be pervy, and he resolved that...damnit yes they could be, but he'd never admit it.

Instead he folded his hands together in front of him and said, "Tell me, is the rock your sitting on, alive?"

She looked him curiously, "Course not!" She said with a titter.

"Is it dead then?" He asked her.

"Wahl no, not really, its jus'a rock." She said, unsure of where he was going.

"So you can't kill it, and it can't die, right?" He asked.

"Wahl aye, course not." She said as if the question were absurd...and it was.

"So it can't become an undead then, can it?" He asked her.

"So...are yah sayin you're not a rock? Ah know that sire, yer a god." She said with a titter.

Ainz put his skeletal palm to his face, and then he saw the absurd grin on her face and realized she was teasing him. It felt 'good' to be teased a little, the constant reverence of the guardians, the worshipfulness of Neia, it created a distance that even magic could not bridge. But here was a girl who did see him as a god, and who almost certainly had an element of madness to her, but who felt comfortable with teasing him, treating him as one would a companion or a friend, it was a strange and refreshing thing.

He laughed. "Most gods do not get teased by mortals you know." He said half seriously.

She grinned, "Aye well most gods ain't like ya 'ar master."

"Yah mean ya were a person'r...somthin, once? Ya used to be alive, like me?" Vanysa said with a bright smile, and she got up, stretched, arching her back and thrusting out her chest, her arms going over her head and her hands clasping, she stretched in a much exaggerated way, straight up...and back...and held it, and then popped forward and approached him.

"Didja like girls majesty?" She grinned, "Yah know, back when ya lived?"

Ainz was a bit flustered at the directness of the question.

"Ah think yah did." she said with a grin as she came closer, "yer a god now though." She pouted a bit at that, but shook it off and reached out to touch his skeletal hand, she looked up at him with eyes of reverence.

"Y'know what, back b'for all that stuff, ah thought tha gods musta had a lot'a fun, cause if ah were a god...ah could do anythin." Her fingers closed around his hand and he saw a glimmer of madness overtake her bright spark as she went back down to her knees.

"Yah can y'know?" She said duskily, fluttering her eyes at him.

"Can what?" He asked as he looked for some way to escape this situation.

"Do...anythin...ta me." She whispered and inched closer on her knees, still holding his skeletal fingers.

He was all but speechless, and the alligator man managed to utter a loud whimper, and she popped up on her feet, skipped over to it, an kicked him square in his eyeball, "Ahma tryin...to talk...tah god now yah damn heathen!" She said and stomped his eye several more times, her little fists on her hips, and for a moment Ainz was so grateful for the interruption that he almost...almost...considered cancelling the spell over that one as a reward.

When she finished stomping on the beastman's eyeballs, she turned around and folded her arms in front of her and looked down with a huff and a pout. Ainz used the distraction to mount his horse and he gestured to hers. "Come Vanysa, we have a ways to go to the next city."

She skipped over again and said, "But'cha won't though." She giggled, and he wondered if her dusky conduct had been another tease, and the bouncy gleam returned to her eyes again, they rode for several hours at a brisk pace, no monsters, beastmen, or humans were encountered, they simply enjoyed the deep green wood and the sounds of nature.

"How can I reward you, after all this is done?" Ainz asked as the sun began to set.

She put a finger to her cheek and turned her face up in thought, "Ah don't rightly know, ah guess ah could ask fer money, people like money, gets all kindsa good stuff, but ah didna do much, ah guess...when ah can write good, can ah write thins for yah an have yah see em, an...maybe just see yah again som'tim?"

She looked a little depressed, "Yah gonna go home aincha, back to yah kingdom, afta all this?"

He nodded. "I am. This is a brief interlude for me, in truth more of a vacation from the tedium than a chore or a quest. Long ago, when I had my other forty great friends, we went on truly grand quests, with great challenges against others who rivalled us, and we triumphed again and again...they're gone now, and I'm here."

She looked at him, "Ah didn know gods coul'be lonely." She said, and his gaze, which had been straight ahead, snapped to look at her, she wasn't joking, not about this, that he could tell.

"Ahm sorry, ah wadn't tryin to make yah sad majesty, ah lost ma friends to yah know, they all dead, turnt inta bear shit, ah know h'w it is, yah love em, then they gone, an yah don't know why...an it hurts, but yah happy to cause yah had sech good times an yah want em back, but yah get to member em an it hurts but also makes yah happy an yah lovem but can't say nuthin to em no more an all yah want is to say sorry but yah cant cause they gone an yah wonder if yah did somethin or coulda did somethin an yah know yah couldn't but yah think yah coulda and now yah can't do nothin fer um but think'v em an yah sometimes wish yah n'eva knew'm cause then yah wouln't hurt so bad but then yah wouln't felt good in'th first place an...an...an..." She ran her sentence on and on without pausing for breath until she ran out of air, and she hugged her waist and shook and cried, and Ainz reached over to the reins of her horse, and brought it a little closer to where he was riding, and they rode in silence that was unbroken but for her tears and a shared time of painful but beautiful memories.

They rode so long that the night meant nothing, and Vanysa cried herself to sleep on her horse, she slumped over on one side, but before she could fall, Ainz allowed her to slump against him. He couldn't feel much in the way of physical sensation as her body rested against him, whatever her dreams were, they didn't trouble her like yesterday, so he thought it best to let her sleep.

He didn't wake her till they finally emerged from a clearing and saw the distant walls of Forton, when he saw them, he shook her, and she sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Ahhhh...what time es it?" She asked, "Ow long ah sleep?"

"Long enough," he said and pointed, "We're here. This is the last great city held by the beastmen. After this, its time to visit the beastmen in their own homeland." Ainz added, and Vanysa's eyes went wide. "Ah slept all that time, sire why didja na wake me! Ah cannae serve yah while ah sleep, what if'n yah needed somethin? Ah cahnt let down tha god that saved me life!" She blushed furiously.

Ainz let it go with a shrug, "I am undead, I do not sleep, I do not tire. I would be a poor king and a worse god if I overtaxed my servants." He said.

She didn't have a teasing remark for that, but he could sense she appreciated the gesture. As they came closer to the wall, a shout came down from it

"Who are you and whatta you want?" The voice said.

"Do the beastmen rule this city?!" Ainz shouted.

"We do!" The voice returned.

"Then I command you all to surrender to me now!" Ainz shouted back up.

"And I command you to fuck right off!" The voice said in response.

"They tried similar answers at Ha'ak Pale & Hearthlight, and now all of them are dead! Are you sure you will not surrender?!" Ainz asked.

There was silence, and the voice responded, "Wait there, I'll get the commander!"

"Your lives are on borrowed time, pray you do not borrow to much before I call in the debt!" Ainz snapped back. He looked over the walls while the owner of the voice scurried away. They were formidable, perhaps twenty meters tall, but there was no moat, and though the gate had an arched tunnel and probably numerous murder holes, he noticed that there were relatively few towers and no evidence of long range siege equipment, the city looked more formidable than it had been in reality. No wonder if thad fallen. The stones looked thick though, that was probably why the walls were intact, they went over, not through.

After a few minutes a new voice answered, "Who are you?!"

"I am Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom!" He shouted up.

"What do you want here?!" It shouted back to him, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"I am fulfilling the request of Queen Draudillion of the Draconic Kingdom, and to that end she has traded me the last from somewhat beyond here, all the way to the border of your kingdom. So you are in my city, and I am come to claim it. Now you can get out, or I can kill you all the way I did the beastmen of Ha'ak Pale and Hearthlight, your choice!"

"Only the governing tribal chief can order that!" The voice shouted back in a rising panic.

"Then why are you here?! Go and fetch him!" Ainz snapped back, "an hurry, I am impatient!"

Several minutes later, a voice from yet another figure called from over the wall. "I am the ruler here, who are you?"

Ainz finally snapped, he hated repeating himself, "You should know my name and reason for being here if your subbordinates are not incompetent morons!" He shouted, "I am here to claim what is mine. Get out of my city or you will suffer till you beg for death!"

The voice was silent. "If we agree to leave, are we allowed to bring suffient food with us?!" The voice asked.

It was the first sane response Ainz had seen from the beastmen.

"I will permit no humans in your...larder. You will leave them behind, but as a favor to your reason, I will permit you all 'other' food in the form of beef, sheep, or other unintelligent beasts!" Ainz shouted.

The voice shouted in frustration.

Voices argued amongst one another quite loudly for a bit, and the voice returned, "We want to offer a challenger, if they survive against you for two minutes, then we leave with food, if they win, they eat you and that tender dish beside you, if they die, we take nothing! The humans are yours!"

Ainz appeared to consider it. "Send three challengers, I will make it closer to fair!" he shouted.

He looked to Vanysa, "Stay back this time, do not get in the way."

She didn't protest, she only rode her mount several yards away, and a few minutes later three towering figures emerged, and Ainz dismounted from his horse.

There stood a rhinoman, a lionman, and what seemed to be a pantherwoman.

They came within a few yards of Ainz, completely unopposed, atop the hill, Ainz could see people lining up to watch the fight.

"Brave undead. But you won't win." The panther woman said, a low and dusky purr coming from her shapely face. She blinked bright eyes and looked hungry.

"Of course I will," Ainz said, "You have common ground with a corpse, you're dead...but don't know it."

Vanysa slapped her face with an open palm...god of humor and jokes he was not.

They spread out in front of them.

Ainz turned to Vanysa, "Signal the start of the fight." He said.

"Start!" She shouted, and Ainz cast timestop, then he cast delay, true death on the lionman, delay, internal explosion on the panther woman...and then he unfroze time, the lionman fell over dead, and the panther woman's body exploded from the inside, sending her torso flying back the way she'd come. The rhinoman didn't realize what had happened, to single minded, and began to whale on Ainz, only to see the corpses in his peripheral vision and realize in a panic that this fight was not what he was expect.

Ainz let the blows come, they were nothing, het let those on the wall see the blows do nothing, he managed to look very bored as the rhinoman tried to hurt him, and then as if he tired of the game, he grabbed the wrist of the rhinoman and snapped it...twice. There was nothing dignified or magical about what Ainz did next, but this was not about his magic, this was about showing absolute strength and undeniable superiority, and so he began to pummel the rhinoman, the horn snapped like a twig, teeth shattered, ears were torn off, and the blows of skeletal hands continued to fall on the beastman until he fell, which was not long, it was very clear he was punishing the being more than simply defeating him, and when it was done, there was nothing but tenderized meat left.

"That meat you CAN take with you!" Ainz shouted, and then he saw the torso of the panther woman, she was in bad shape, but she was trying to crawl back to the city, Ainz did not see fit to let her do so. He walked over to where she cralwed, grabbed her by the rough of her neck, and dragged her bodily over to Vanysa and plopped the beastwoman in front of her.

"Do what you need to do." He said, and she let out a shriek and began to beat the half dead creature...the rest of the way to death.

It took a couple of minutes for her to do so, but the walls were watching, the predators had become prey, the oppressor the oppressed, the strong became weak, and unbending wrath had fallen on their heads.

"You will now depart my city." Ainz snapped loudly.

There wasn't a sound, they were clearly reluctant.

Fear was a rare emotion, but one they felt strongly now.

Vanysa approached, huffing and puffing and coated in blood. "Majesty?" She asked, and Ainz looked behind her, the panther woman was a bloody pulp, and it was clear she'd been bitten, Vanysa had blood on her cheek and on her lips, she hadn't gone easy on the beast woman.

"Yes Vanysa?" He asked.

"Were yah gonna let em leave with people?" She asked with trepidation.

Ainz laughed, "I agreed to their contest because victory was impossible, I just wanted them to know this."

She clapped her hands together and hopped up and down again, the blood streaked golden mane bounced behind her. "Oh yay! I knowed that, course ah did, what was ah thinkin?" She giggled.

Ainz looked back to the city.

"Then die." He said.

He pointed at the city, "Walk of Mal'ak Hammashit!" he shouted, and blue light emenated around him as the supertier spell was activated, noise filled the air and drowned out the cries of human and beastman alike, and then the spell vanished and...nothing happened.

There was silence, nothing moved, no one spoke, the sky did not fall down, the world did not tear assunder.

The beastmen started to laugh hesitantly, "Was it all just a big bluff?!" Some voices began to shout...and Ainz just waited.

Vanysa came to stand beside him, "What'dja do sire?" She asked.

"I killed them all." He said, "They just don't know it yet, but they will."

She waited, the voices began to pick up, laughter and relief at still being alive, and shouts that he shouldn't move because they were coming to kill him were made, and given more time, they might have tried, but Vanysa looked where Ainz did, and so they saw before the beastmen or humans inside the walls did, that the sky had started to become overcast.

The wind began to pick up, the hit the trees and they blew and bent, as if bowing towards Ainz Ooal Gown. Vanysa watched it with awe, it was nature, nature itself was bowing to her god. She went to both knees, this was sacred ground to her now, and she lowered herself prostrate, not a giggle or a laugh, which was why she did not see the beastmen on the wall die.

There was screaming suddenly, roars of terror, the bellows of beastmen, as Mal'ak Hammashit began to move about the city, Ainz could not see its movement, but he could tell it was moving swiftly, as it moved, it spread its plague, and beastmen clawed at their own bodies as if trying to claw away at the infection it spread, they tried to tear off the infected flesh like one would a scab, but this bought them seconds, minutes for the fastest, and those were of uttery agony as their flesh was rotted from their living bodies, the humans who could see it all happen, saw it as one would a miracle, one moment the beastmen were everywhere and were invincible, the next, a shadow moved, and they died in agony, rotting away from the outside in, from their extremities to their torsos and finally their heads, screaming until their lungs were gone and they found they could not gain breath to shriek from, leaving their heads at last, until that too was a fleshless skull and the body was nothing but bones. the screams lasted for a long time as Mal'ak Hammashit did its masters's bidding, street by street and block by block. They stood outside for some time, until the screaming grew ever farther away as it moved in to the interior. "Come along Vanysa, would you like to see my city?" He asked her, and held out his skeletal hand for her to grasp and rise with, which she did.

"Ah would luv to sire." She said happily, and she followed him to the gate, skipping all the way with a sadistic smile following the world disaster she worshiped as a god.

**AN: I have to say, this has been one of the most fun stories for me to write, Vanysa is just a FUN character, I've been waiting forever to put her to use it seems, but I had to get far enough in to God Rising before I could do a dual introduction and show her in the 'present' and in the 'past'. I hope you've had fun with this one too and gotten a fair share of laughs out of it, and of course...enjoyed the OP use of Ainz's magic and strength.**

**Incidentally, apologies for any inconvenience when it came to the incident with 'God Rising' I accidentally skipped a chapter publication, I lost track because of the Q&A 2 and thought I'd published something I hadn't, so the only way to straighten it out after all that was to delete all the way back to 45 and then republish it all in its PROPER order. So its fixed now, if you read forward from there you'll see all the missing material is back in place. **

**Anyway that so pissed me off that I decided that today's double release would be "Taming of the Beastmen" and...I'm happy with that. More God Rising tomorrow for another double release. :) Y'all keep donating to charity, and so I donate my time to providing you what you whole heartedly deserve. Good stories, which...I hope I'm holding up my end of that! Of course I won't KNOW I'm doing so unless you actually REVIEW! :) Sooooo...there's that. Of course if you want to keep the double releases coming, you can donate blood...get yourself vampired at a blood bank or the red cross or something, or you can donate monetarily to bdgiving dot org and add another 'double release day' on to my schedule.**

**People get to live, people get better lives, you get more fan fiction...everybody wins! :) And yes that includes me, I love writing this stuff, and doing it for charity gives me just the excuse I need to devote more time to it...you slave drivers! ;)**

**And just in case you're curious, 'Mal'ak Hammashit' means 'the angel who was bringing destruction' it was the angel of YHWH who brought pestilence and death to the enemies of the ancient Hebrews, it served as part of the basis for the evolution of a...well lets just say a well known character of the later New Testament period.**


	7. Under New Management

The gateway was...very narrow. And the door at the end was very sturdy looking, it hadn't even been damaged, it was made of orichalcum and platinum bands interwoven over thick stone strips, it was clearly meant to allow only three to pass abreast, and it did not take a genius to realize that this was to limit the ability of beastmen to assault the position. As it was completely intact, Ainz concluded that the beastmen had recognized its nigh invulnerability and had instead gone over the walls.

Ainz touched the massive door with his skeletal fingers, he imagined the countless hours stone cutters had spent shaping stone strips, the number and exhaustion of the many smiths that had worked in sweltering heat to shape the mineral into these bands, so that the people beyond them were kept safe. He wondered if they lived to see the fall of the city, if they lived to know the frustration of their efforts by simply avoiding them. He traced the workmanship with one fingers, his bone moved over it, feeling how smooth it was, how any hours of work went in to this one thing to let people come and go, while also providing them with what safety they could manage?

Later he planned to ask the queen about it, he hoped he'd learn that they had died generations ago, and didn't live to see their work come to nothing.

"Whatcha doin majesty, ain't we goin in?" She asked as she rocked back and forth on her heels with her hands behind her back.

"I am paying my respects to the craftsmen who made this, their masterwork never fell, and though I will now destroy it, I want to remember the labor so I may have it recreated some day, when things are safe here again, a testament to the danger and their fulfillment of their duty to prepare against it." He said solemnly.

"Whassit matter?" She asked. "They dead, didn work." She said bluntly.

"It did work." He said, "See, it is intact, this gate never fell."

She pondered that for a moment, "M'kay, king stuff, ahl take yah word fer it sire." She said and continued rocking back and forth on her heels until he was done.

"Greater break item." He said, and the gate shattered like it had been kicked in by a giant, the pieces of the powerful minerals and stone flew inward like shrapnel and several bodies were cut to pieces. The screaming of beastmen had stopped, but human voices and shouting could still be heard.

"Go and begin freeing people, but caution them not to flee, a city this large must have an amphitheater or public speaking place of its own, tell them to go there, and the one who saved them will speak with them." He said.

She touched two fingers to her head and snapped them forward, "Gotcha majesty, ahm gonna do good!" She grinned and began to skip down the street.

"Fly." Ainz said, and he levitated off the ground and rose above the city. He found it very easy to spot Vanysa,, she skipped along, she'd untie someone, she'd pause, speak to them, and then skip off. Then it was on to the next person. Curiously, the ease of this did not change at all, she just kept at it, he could follow her even as she became a dot far down below him, the way she moved was so whimsical...but he also noticed that it was methodical, she moved in a zig zag pattern as she went down the street, careful to check everything. The people she helped either went directly to the destination she'd told them about...or they were muddled and random, seemingly moving from one place to the next with absolutely no evident plan whatsoever.

Had he still possessed eybrows, he would have lifted one in curiosity, for all her whimsy, bouncy playfulness, and seemingly 'off' behavior...the persistent unbroken pattern of search and rescue betrayed a methodical and rational mind that one steeped in madness should not have been capable of.

As he also noted, she was the first person to point out that he must have been 'alive' before if he was 'undead' now, most simply considered him undead and that was the end of it, what he was before never seemed to enter their minds. To come to that conclusion...just as she had followed his brief lesson in the economics of wealth creation...she had to have some of her higher functions still intact. What 'broke' who she was? Could she come back from it? It was questionable.

After several hours, humans all over the city were searching for others of their fellows and gradually gathering in the center of the city, the moving crowds told Ainz where he needed to go, and he descended behind the actor's staging area where he could not be seen and waited for Vanysa.

He did not wait long, a few minutes after that she skipped down the steps, humming a tune, taking two or three at a time, from where Ainz stood he could see her approach, she moved like a fawn, the grace of a wild dear leaping through the fields, free and unafraid, her long blonde hair carried into the air behind her. She reached the stage...having now acquired the eyes of the entire crowd, and when she reached the center she spun on her heel.

"Hiya!" She said and jumped up and down and waved to everybody with an enormous smile on her face, she radiated sunshine in the half dead city.

There was no response. She put a pout on her face.

"Ah said HIYA!" She repeated and waved to them all again.

A much confused crowd...waved back.

"I'm Vanysa, an ah gots good thins to tell yah! So pay close attention!" She said and leaned forward wagging her finger in warning.

"See, yah gots saved, yah saw them beastmen go and die screamin right!"

She asked with a shout, and was met with a cheer.

"Wouldja like ta see the one what done that to em?!" She asked.

She was met with a thunderous cheer.

When it died down she said, "M'kay, well thas mah god, he done killed all of 'em what ate yer friends an family, an he killed em all at Hearthlight, and he killed em all at Ha'ak Pale! Evry damn beastman in evr city they done took from us...they DEAD!" She shouted with glee, and the cheers redoubled.

She wagged her finger at them again, "Now listen 'ear, yah think the one what done all that killin of the killers is normal lookin? Yah think that maybe? Well nah, he's a god, and gods ain't normal ah they?!" She asked.

There were many shaking heads.

"Thas right! Now this'n, well he's real scary lookin, see he don't breath, he don't got no skin, he's an undead king what the Queen done asked to come an save us all, he's from a far away place, an I'm gonna get outta the way an let him talk to yah, but yah GOTS ta stay calm m'kay?!" She asked them, there were muted nods and shocked expressions.

"No really! Now ifn' yah turn an run...well that'll hurt is feelins, he's been right nice ta me, and ifn yah hurt his feelins...you'll be hurtin mah feelins." She clasped her heands together in front of her chest, her eyes watered and a catch entered her voice. "Yer...nae gonna hurt my feelins...are yah...?"

As bizarre as it was, they couldn't imagine hurting that sweet looking little Vanysa, so there were many shaking heads in the crowd. Ainz quietly palmed his face...she was...quite expressive.

"A'right sire, they ready!" She turned to face the back as she spoke, and Ainz emerged from where he stood, the crowd was 'prepared' sort of, and so they neither panicked nor fled, instead they simply stared.

Ainz went to the center of the stage, and when he stood next to Vanysa, she went down to both knees next to him, and sank back onto the balls of her feet.

"I am Ainz Ooal Gown, Sorcerer King. I came here because your queen asked me to do so, she asked that I save your lives. Your lives are saved now. You are free, but you cannot stay here." Ainz said.

"You must withdraw to your capitol, and you have little time to do it." He continued, my servant has told you about the destruction of the beastmen of your other two cities...but you will note she said nothing about the villages."

A low murmur began, and Ainz held up his hands to still the crowd.

"The villages where beastmen ventured have no doubt been overrun, and we know that they have sent out others to search for humans in hiding, and we know that cities like this one were sending out other humans to the occupied villages to sustain their forces. With all three cities captured, the beastmen of the villages are presented with a choice!" He said, and the crowd edged forward, fearful of what he may next say.

"They must either advance in search of more, or they must withdraw to their own lands! No matter which choice they make...they will join forces into another army, and if you are caught out in the open, how well can you protect yourselves?!" He said firmly, his voice carrying the pronouncement of doom.

There were fearful looks exchanged.

"Therefore you must withdraw, there are many villages, and I will send aid to free those I can, but I myself am going to advance in to the beastman kingdom itself, you then must be GONE by the time the village forces realize that no more help is coming to them from here! They may know about the other two cities, they may even have sent others to check them, and if they have they will be getting desperate! You must NOT be here if you want to live!" He said firmly.

He scanned the crowd, their faces showed their understanding. "Gather the pregnant, the wounded, the sick, the injured, load all those who cannot move onto carts, all others stay on foot, use what horses you can to haul as many as you can, you must be gone within hours of now. Pack what you need, but ONLY what you need. I leave tomorrow morning with my servant, I expect you to be gone long before then!" Am I clear?!" He asked.

There was a rumbling of acknowledgement from the crowd, but someone spoke up, "Can you not come with us, protect us maybe?!" Someone asked, their voice caught up in fear.

Ainz shook his head, "No. I have further work to do, you have had your rescue and now you alone must make the most of it, take weapons if you need them, but you are not so far from help, they will be expecting you by now I think, and may even send parties to meet you, so if there is nothing more, GO!" He closed out his sentence with a startling shout, and people jumped to their feet and began to rush out of the area.

With many exits, the crowds were gone and the city was abuzz with activity, leaving Ainz & Vanysa alone on the stage.

Ainz turned and looked down at Vanysa. He touched her shoulder and she looked up at him. "D'ah do good sire?" She asked.

"You did." He said.

"Cahn ah learn more a them letters and whatnot then?" She asked with a grin.

"Aye, do you have your book?" He asked.

"Mah book...yah givin this tah me?" She said with a whisper as she pulled it out and looked down at it.

"Aint nobody never gave me nuthin...nuthin like this for jus...nuthin...nobody...thout want'n...somethin fer it." She said with awe as she looked down at the title, "D is for Dog."

"Why'r yah so nice tah me? Huh?" She looked up at him. "I don do nuthin really, ah cain't give yah nuthin...all ah gots isa body...an..." A bitter expression crossed her face, "Yah don need ta be nice...yah gots all that power...so why...why'r yah kind ta me?" Her eyes watered a bit and she hugged the book to her chest as if to cover it.

"Do you not want me to be kind?" He asked. He cocked his head in confusion, "I do not know your culture, is it required that kinds and gods be cruel for some reason?"

"Ah, no, no nae that sire, its just...ah gots no way ta say thankee, an strong'uns, they don't gots ta be nice ta get they wants, you strong, so...idn it so that yah can just...just..." She stopped and closed her eyes and shook.

"That is not who I am. I do not want what does not want me." He said.

Her eyes snapped up to him, "But ah wants to make yah happy sire, I really wants tah."

"Wanting to make me happy, is not the same as wanting 'me'." Ainz replied, "And too, I am undead, a skeleton, there is nothing I can do with your body that you would enjoy, not in the sense you are thinking." He answered.

"But...yah used ta be alive right?" She asked.

"Yes." He answered.

"Andja liked girls when yah was, didncha?" She asked.

"An yah liked these didncha?" She asked and removed the book and 'bounced' her body again. His red orbs went there immediately, and she giggled.

"Ah knew it." She said.

"Ahhhh..." Ainz said, somewhat flummoxed.

"And yah member yer life, right?" She asked.

"Yes..." He answered hesitantly.

"So even if yah cannae do the things yah wanted to do b'for, well...yah can still have me...close, ah can lay with yah, let yah touch me, ah can letcha look, ah can make yah happy some." She said...quite reasonably.

Ainz kept silent for a long time, and then said, "You are my servant. You bow to me as your god, even though you are willing, while I have power and you none, it would be predatory of me to take advantage of that difference in status, even though in this moment you are willing. Nobody has a right to touch you, and you should not have to offer your body in exchange for kindness, I am not that kind of king, and I would not be that kind of god." He replied.

She prostrated herself to him, lowering her face to the stone and casting her arms forward, "Ah don know much about kingin, an I don know much bout gods, but yer what ahm gonna measure everone in both gainst ferever!" She said softly.

Without raising her head she asked again..."But why'r yah so nice ta me?"

"Perhaps...I needed to be." He answered, "Only continue to be yourself, that is sufficient."

The answer had her quite confused, but before she asked anything more, he asked his own question.

"Tomorrow I venture into beastman territory, are you sure you do not wish to head back with the other humans? It may be more dangerous in the days ahead. I cannot guarantee that something will not appear that might be able to defeat me, or that something that I cannot save you from might appear. If you want to go back, I will provide you with a sum of money sufficient to allow you to live well in your nation again." Ainz asked.

It was the wrong question, she snapped up to her knees and stared up at him, then hugged him as tight as she could from that position and said, "No...please no...don wanna go master, don wanna go...if'n ah was bad...ah promise ahl be good, jus lemme stay, ahm not strong...but ah can be brave for yah, ah can be ah promise!"

He gently disentangled himself from her and knelt down in front of her. "Out of the tens of thousands of humans to be freed in these last few days, only one has chosen to follow me, I do not doubt your courage." Ainz said firmly.

"But you are mortal, I am immortal, and you should not be rewarded for good service with death." He replied.

She looked up at him with shining eyes, "Sire if'n yah tell me tah go, ahl go, whether yah gimmie stuff'r nae, cause yah gimmie life already, like a true god ottah...but ah tell yah, if'n yah gimmie a choice...I wanna stay wit yah...so...can ah do that?"

Ainz stood and threw his back, and first he sighed, then he laughed. "Very well, you're a stubborn one Vanysa, and I admit I've gotten used to you, very well, you may continue to follow me for now. But if I allow you to do so, and I tell you that you must flee, then you must not question me next time."

She looked down..."Sire...ah will obey, but...ah wanna be a good servan, so ah gots tah stay by master till masters done...kay?" She asked.

Ainz laughed, "If you'll bargain with a god this hard, I wouldn't wonder that you'd seized a kingdom out from under its king."

She grinned. "Ah can be right sharp yah know, aint know much, but ah never paid full price fer nuthin!"

"Now, lets get back to learning, take a seat over there." He said, pointing to a long seating row.

"Aye sire!" She said and skipped her way over.

She opened her book and when he said, "Write down each letter, say them as you do so, and say what the picture is of for each page. The first letter of each picture shown, is the letter you're writing down, so get to it, and keep going until I say stop."

He took out quill and paper and set her to it.

She scrunched up her face, stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and bit down on it for focus, he showed her how to hold the quill and how to make the shapes one by one, and this she did with great alacrity, she proved a quick study, and as she did so...he saw her eyes shift, the bouncy look began to vanish and a sharp and clear eyed look overtook her, as she focused fiercly on what she was doing, she seemed like another person.

The letters took shape on the page, once, twice, ten, fifty times each, and when she was done he taught her simple sentences, and all the while the city around them began to empty as time passed and the masses began to form up outside, there were more left alive than one would have expected, but it was still only a fraction of the former population.

That however, did not disturb the process of her education, and for hours Vanysa worked studiously and with clear eyes. When he was satisfied with the simple things, Ainz said, "Now I wish you to read to me."

So word by word, she recited from the book until her pronunciation started to improve.

"Th-an-k...you...sire." She said, when he at last gave her a break, she wiped the sweat from her brow, the mental effort was considerable, and she was clearly tired.

By then it was evening, and she stood and stretched out, giving him a playful look as she held the stretched pose in front of him for far longer than she needed to do.

She grinned, "Can I go sleep sire?" She said...carefully pronouncing her words to ensure it was just the way he was saying things.

"You may, but be ready to move first thing in the morning. We are moving into beastman territory, and I do not wish you to be sloppy." He said.

"As yah...you...wish sire." She said, carefully trying to correct herself, she took a posture that was...imitative, of a polished formal bow, but it was clearly only a crude imitation, unpolished by an unpracticed peasant life.

He looked at her oddly. "Vanysa?" He asked.

"Ah wanna be a good servan, nae jus some peasan thing tha look stupid." She crunched her eyes shut tight when she realized what she'd just said and how she'd said it.

"I...want...to...be...a...good...servant. Not...sound...stupid. Mayk yah look bad sire." She said, speaking slowly as she sounded out the words in the polished way he'd said said them, before, and then slipped back into the speech of her upbringing.

She bit her lip and looked down. "Ah...I...will..." Ainz interrupted and raised a skeletal hand.

"Do not think further on it for now Vanysa, just sleep, the act of learning will change you, but you should do so for its own sake, not for any other." He said, "Now go, sleep."

She nodded her head silently, and scurried off to find a place to rest in the now almost completely empty walls.

Vanysa looked over her shoulder as she left the amphitheater, as she climbed the steps, each footfall echoed from wall to wall and back again. The Sorcerer King was now out of sight, and as her steps echoed, she wondered as the sounds moved on and faded from her hearing...would they carry on forever, growing smaller and smaller, but never truly gone, and would they continue, even if none were to hear it?

She sighed, and listened to its echo as well, and left the place behind. As the sun began to sink beyond the horizon, it cast night's cloak behind it as it left the world behind again. She quickly found a space for herself, a small residence of little note. The door was gone, smashed in to pieces. Splinters of wood were everywhere, and within there were small splotches of blood, that indicated that the previous occupant would not require the residence anymore.

The blankets were still on the bed, the pillow had been thrown aside, there were even some clothes, Vanysa went through them by candle light, and found a green cloak and a pair of well worn boots that seemed to be her size, there was little else of note, just a small dagger which she secured to her belt, and a shirt that was to tight in the torso to wear.

When she'd gathered what she could, she set it aside to pack in the morning, and slowly removed her clothing. It had been a bit since she'd had a good bath, but she doubted the public baths were worth using now, and she doubted any of the residences in this area had one for the owners. So she let out a regretful sigh and removed her clothing in the darkness. When she was naked save for the covering night gave her, and that flesh that was covered by the long hair she undid and let fall down to her waist she stood beside the bed, her back to the open and shattered door.

She thought for a moment how vulnerable she should feel...but the city was empty now, only she and her master, her god, her savior, remained any longer, and in this almost total emptiness, there was no danger left.

She let out a slow exhale and spoke to herself as she pulled back the blanket and laid out the pillow. "Ah've spent mah whole life afeared a people, an now here ah am, tha onla thing makin me safe...an undead." She said in almost total disbelief. She paused, as one listens for the unexpected in the dark.

She didn't turn around. "Ah know yer their sire, yah c'n...you can come in if you want to." She said.

**AN: Hope you enjoyed. :) Good thing a number of y'all donated, that gives you double releases all the way till Sunday. **

**OTHERWISE...you'd have THAT as a cliffhanger. ;) Reviews if you would please. **


	8. Dilemmas

Her words passed through the shadows between her and the door, and beyond it, she listened, she waited, nothing happened.

"Well...was worth ah shot." She said with a shrug. "Kinda hoped he might be a lil pervy, nuff for me tah ketch'im." She muttered in annoyance under her breath. In truth she had not heard a thing, but she hoped perhaps he might be there, and she could perhaps trick him into thinking he had been caught, but it was a futile hope and she had expected it to fail anyway, so she slipped under the covers, glad to be out of her travel clothes, and she closed her eyes for a rest.

Of course...she could not see in the dark, nor was anyone around who could, but if...such a being had been present, one that could see her eyes as if they were in the daylight, they would have seen the happy, bouncy, mischivious eyes of the little peasant girl, go wide and stare up with sadistic glee behind them...for several minutes, before they closed and she drifted off into her slumber again.

The night for her was uneventful, when she woke, she dressed herself and packed her clothing, changing in to the garb that the previous owner had left behind...what she could fit of it anyway, and regretted the shirt that didn't fit.

The sun was barely peaking over the horizon, and she walked out the door and stretched, then moved to the gate through which they'd come. As she came around the corner, she saw the Sorcerer King in conversation with someone, a man in a suit with a...frog head...oddly enough.

The frogman being, if he noticed she was there, did not care to acknowledge her, he simply stepped through the hole in reality and vanished.

When the figure was gone, Vanysa waved and hopped up and down, and jogged over to the Sorcerer King.

"G'mornin sire, whosat?" she asked curiously.

"Demiurge, a servant of my kingdom, I was instructing him to being clearing beastmen camps from out of the villages that surround the cities." Ainz replied.

Her eyes widened, "Yah got servans that c'n do the same thin you do sire?" She asked in awe.

"No, but close, definitely good enough to bring down these beastmen, they're very weak so..." He shrugged.

Her eyes did not go back to normal, "Sire if these'r weak, what's strong to yah?"

He stroked his chin for a moment and thought, "You know...I'll let you know when I encounter it...maybe the demon emperor...but when I was at full strength he could not even damage me so...I suppose not." He shook his head, "I'll just have to let you know when I find something that counts as 'strong'. He said casually.

"Will tha beastmen really still be ther?" She asked uncertainly.

"Some I think." Ainz replied, "It seems likely to me since they're very tribal, some will venture farther into human lands...but in small numbers, while others will stay put, and others will withdraw back to their homes or inspect these now empty cities."

"If'n they gonna withdraw, how come they ain't been seen much on tha road?" Vanysa asked dubiously.

"Abundant supplies most likely, their advance was rapid and recent, so the ones staying in place will have enough to last for awhile, by contrast those who withdraw, have fewer supplies, while those who advance while farthest along, have the fewest supplies." He replied.

"Howdja know that?" She asked, incredulous at his statement.

"Simple, those with abundant supplies can afford to wait for more. Those with few supplies that can still reach the border will not take the chance of running out, and those with the fewest supplies are those farthest away, meaning they don't have enough to get home and so they must advance, or be hunted as they weaken during the long march home. Demiurge will target those on the move, and set a lower priority on those with abundant supplies that do not move, while we will take our time and allow the rest to make it back into their home country." He replied as he ticked off his answers on his boney fingers.

"But sire...whysat?" She asked. "Ain'tcha gonna kill em?" She asked hopefully, a sadistic gleam in her now clear eyes sharp eyes.

"Because a lesson must be learned here." Ainz said, his voice growing cold, "I will share a border with them, and I must make sure they know...to the marrow of their bones, that I can break them as easily as twigs, they will not even want to consider crossing the border for a lifetime or more, and the strain I will subject them to will be mitigated.

He began walking to the gate, and when he passed through, he summoned them their undead mounts, they got back on the beasts and resumed the ride.

They were quiet for awhile and then Ainz asked, "Do you know anything of their country?"

She shook her head, "No...I...don't." She answered, carefully forcing herself to shape her words properly.

"Nothing?" He asked carefully.

She shook her head, "Rumas onlah...rumors...only." She corrected herself again.

"I'll take them." He answered, "I will just compensate for the possibility they may be wrong."

Her eyes shifted again and she continued...

"Well, its supposed tah be a paradise of jungle an forest and wide open plains. Like a paradise for nightmare creatures." She said, again carefully shaping how she spoke, and as she did so the intelligent keen intelect that Ainz's observations of her behavior seemed to indicate, was slowly taking shape again.

It was bizarre to observe, her manner of speech seemed to change with her eyes, she struggled to pronounce her words as someone with a good education would, but whenever she made the attempt...she was successful. So he listened to her talk about the things she'd heard about the beastman country, the stories of the breeding pens where humans were raised and slaughtered like sheep or cattle, how these organized 'ranches' were a common trade between the beastman kingdoms. Trade did not flow outwards from them to many other kingdoms, and they seemed to have had a cordial relationship with each other. Strength seemed to be their founding principle, and they obeyed nothing that was not stronger than they were.

It was fairly limited knowledge, unsurprising, given the nature of their relationships with humans. They rode in silence for a little while, and then she asked, "Sire, wha wasat spell yah used yeserday?" She asked curiously.

"That was 'the angel who is bringing destruction'." he replied. She looked at him funny.

"Ain't angels s'posed ta be good, ow can somethin be an angel...an d'stroy? Ah mean killen beastmen is fine an all, but...ifn yah wanted ta, couldnae it have been used on humans?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, it could." He answered.

"Then ah don't get it." She said glumly, and Ainz went quiet for a time before saying...

"Tell me Vanysa...am I good?" Ainz asked.

"Ah thin so." She said. "Yah coulda killed me, butcha didn, yah saved me." She stared at him with moony eyes of awe, and he looked ahead pensively, seeing her look out of the corner of his eye. "Yah c'n do anythin, butcha teach me tah read an write, yah lemme follow yah, an yah savin all mah people." She answered. "If'n thats nae good, wha'is?"

"I have killed some two hundred thousand humans. At least." He said bluntly.

"Am I still good?" He asked.

She went pale.

"I have killed more humans in one hour than the beastmen killed in one year. So I ask you...am...I...good?" He asked again.

She shook..."Am ah gonna be one?" She asked in a small voice.

"No." He said in a voice that spoke of the finality of his answer. She relaxed a bit.

"Well...whydja do it?" She asked.

"It was a war." He answered, "My ally asked me to cast the most powerful spell I knew, so I picked one of them, and seventy thousand died in one instant, the remainder died from the after effects."

She relaxed more, and her eyes took on a sadistic gleam, and the exacting intelligence he'd detected hints of seemed to come out in her face. "Well, then you did what ya had to. Who can call ya bad for that?"

"Are the beastmen bad?" He asked.

She nodded firmly. "Very."

"Why?" He asked.

"Because...they kill us and torture us and eat us." She answered.

"Would they be bad if they just killed and ate you?" He asked.

She nodded firmly.

"What if they have no choice but to eat humans, are they still bad, aren't they just trying to live?" He asked.

She didn't answer.

"Wouldn't that just make us the villains who are killing them for just doing what they have to do to survive?" He asked.

She was still quiet, pensive.

"So the question is...what does it mean to be good, isn't it?" He asked. A fox darted across their path, and Ainz pointed to it, "That fox must eat rabbits and other small creatures to survive, the rabbits and other small creatures might think of it as evil, but it is just trying to live, this is the only way it has to continue to exist and feed its children, if we go from beast...to beastman...what changes?" He asked, spreading his hands and inviting answer.

"Ah...I don't know." She answered.

"I am counted evil by many, and not without good reason. I could have refused my allies request, I could have abandoned my desire for independence, I could have made many other choices, but instead I killed." He put one hand up, bent at the elbow and level with his chest, as if holding the option in place. "On the other hand," he said, bringing his other hand up to the opposite side, "I also fed many who would have died as a consequence, my food aid saved far more lives than I took. When I attacked the lizardmen, they were guiltless of harming me, but I chose to take them as my citizens, I killed a goodly number, but at the same time I have improved the lives of the survivors many times over, feeding them, educating them, and preparing them to take a larger place in the world. Left as they were, sooner or later they were going to be wiped out, if not by the frogmen they warred with frequently, then by other species who are larger, stronger, and more advanced. By killing some and seizing the rest, I have given them a future they could not have possibly had. So which act was evil? Leaving them...which I did not do...or building them up after taking them?" He asked.

"Ah..." He could see the wheels turning in her head as she worked out all the things he'd said.

"Perhaps I am evil...but that evil is directed to a positive end, a desire for things to be better than they were before, if evil is directed towards a good aim, is it still evil?" He asked.

"Ah don't see how..." She began, but stopped as she considered the scale of lost life.

"First tell me this," he said, "What does the word 'good' mean?"

The undead horses hooves clipped and clopped as they moved along the dirt road through the open grassy field, and for a long time it was silent, he wondered for a time if she'd given up, but a glance at her face showed she was still thinking.

"Well...tha priests say it means ta do what the gods say." She replied.

"And if the gods command that you kill those you loved before, would that be good?" He asked.

"Ah don't know..." She replied hesitantly.

"Why not? Is it not their command?" He asked.

She paused, "Supposed ta be but...tha gods wouldnae say that, so..."

"Don't they? I have heard the teachings of the priests, they routinely justify exterminating demihumans, or even killing innocent humans for their notion of a greater good, and they cite the teachings of their gods to do it. They assert a special place for themselves, as directed by their gods, and anyone outside of it has to die. I have met goblins, and lizardmen, and many species, and though they are of a different flesh than you, they have hopes, dreams, loves, fears, and they just want to live like you do. And remember, I am an undead, your gods teach that I am evil and must be put down...just because I exist." He replied.

"Oh..." She scrunched up her face but then brightened and said... "But yer ma god now, them gods didn't do nothing for nobody when the beastmen came, so ah don't care bout what their priests say."

He chuckled, "Well, if I gave you two completely opposite instructions, one to kill a person you knew to be innocent of ever harming anyone...and one instruction to protect someone who had never harmed anyone...would either order determine whether or not I am good or bad?"

She went quiet again.

"So is it good because the gods command it...or is it commanded because it is good, or are the gods irrelevant entirely to the question and good means something different?" He asked her, she could feel him grinning at her even without a face.

"Aight sire, whasee answer?" She asked.

"If I don't know, how would you find out?" He asked.

She pouted at him and he laughed, throwing his head back, his skeletal jaw bobbing as he found great humor in the moment.

"I do not laugh at you Vanysa, I was merely remembering one of my friends who used to do this with me, you reminded me of my own reaction to something he said so long ago, and it was refreshing." He patted her hand, she didn't tense up when his undead, fleshless bones touched her, another refreshing thing.

"I say that what we call good and evil are labels, we call things good when they benefit living beings...improving their lives, their health, their happiness. We call things evil when they are harmful to those things. If we ask ourselves how to tell right from wrong, well the beastmen may follow gods of their own, while the humans have gods of their own, and you have a god of your own...if we all say different things about what it is to be good, then the word 'good' has lost all meaning, indeed it means whatever who is in charge wants it to mean at any given time. Not very useful to call something good or evil in that case, is it?"

She shook her head, and he continued, "So for good and evil to have meaning...persistent and worthwhile meaning...we have to examine the results of our behavior and determine what is good based on that." He said in a reasonable voice, "After all, that is at least something you can say is measurable."

She thought it over for a moment..."But...what if'n you're wrong?" Her voice had a curious air about it, but her face was intense as she absorbed what he was saying.

"Then you learn from it." He answered, "Then do something different next time, if the consequences of a choice shift, then whether it is good or not, will also shift if we define good as rooted in the positive benefit to those living beings." He said patiently.

"But..what if'n there are no consequences, does nae hurt nor help nobody?" She asked.

He shrugged, "Then its not really a question or good or evil then, is it? After all, thats all we really mean, that we've done something to impact someone else, and they are better or worse off as a result, and if nothing changes, then it doesn't matter and we have no reason to care about the choice."

"Ah guess not." She said.

They went quiet again and she spoke up. "If'n yah coulda spared all them people yah killed an still gotten yer way...would yah'v killed em?"

Ainz shook his head. "No. I do not seek out meaningless slaughter."

She brightened up. "Well there yah go kinda...see...yer a king, yah gots ta make choices where ther is no good ta be had, doncha?" She asked.

"I do." He answered.

"Well, if'n yah make the best choice, the fewest die 'n suffer, right?" She asked.

"So...mebe yah just can't be all good an also be a good king all at once, mebe yah gotta be bad sometimes ta do some good cause the world sucks like that." She said, and pouted realizing her answer did not make her as happy as she thought it would when she began it.

He chuckled. "You may be right." He replied. "You may be right."

"But...can yer servan beg somethin from yah please?" She asked, looking suddenly vulnerable.

He nodded.

"If'n yah ever...yah know...hafta kill me...if'n I ever...hafta die fer somethin fer yah...please make it quick...ah can't bear more'n what was done...can do it 'gin...ah can't." She looked at him with eyes filled with memories of pain, and the more those memories seemed to rise up, the more the light in her eyes died, they lost their luster and their bounce, and the haunting tone of her voice was filled with agony.

Ainz did not meet her gaze, instead he looked up to the heavens and said softly, "If you ever have to die for me...whatever made you to do that will suffer as no one ever has before, I spare no wrath for those who harm my servants." He said.

As suddenly as it was there, the emotion was gone, she'd snapped back to herself, and rather than risk it's return he looked around and finding the spot to be as good as any, he said, "Lets stop here, you haven't eaten, and you can work on your book some more. Go and make camp."

She grinned, her bouncy eyes returned and she hopped off her horse, took a hatchet out of her pack and began cutting wood. Ainz played the role of king to a hilt, staying on his horse and waiting while his servant worked, but his inner worker and inner adventurer hated just sitting there, doing that would have been fun for him, a novelty, not a chore...but he once again found he had a role to play, and so he waited patiently for her to finish.

She bent over at the waist chopping branches off a fallen tree and carried them to an open space, she stacked them into position, then went back and dragged the tree with a steady groan of effort, she pulled with all the might in her small frame, and inch by inch the hunk of wood gave way. "Do you require assistance?" He asked, seeing her struggle.

She gave him a bit toothy smile and said, "No sire, ah gots this, yah just wait there, let yer servan do the servin!"

"As you like." He said, and she managed to haul it into place, then went and found some rocks, large ones, and flipped them one by one over to the opposite side of the tree, with the bundle of sticks between them. He watched while she dug a hole and stacked the wood in a pyramid shape for the fire, with ample brush and other dry materials underneath to catch the flame. Within a few minutes, they had a fire going.

She wiped the sweat from her brow and said, "Sall ready sire, yah can relax!"

She stood by, stiff as she could with her back as straight as she could make it, he could see she was trying very hard to imitate what she must have seen coachmen and groomsmen and other servants do for their lords, and he accepted her effort as a tribute to him. "Well done, a fine camp. Now, would you like another sandwich?"

She beamed, "Aye sire! I wanna learn another sanich!"

"This one is called a BLT..." He began, and drew out what he needed to make it.

A few minutes later, he was looking at stuffed chipmunk cheeks and eyes watering from either joy...or the effort put into such enormous bites, and he could not keep back his laughter.

**AN: Well, another day, another double release. :) I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you've found Vanysa to be an interesting character to watch. I love the way she interacts with Ainz, they're a very dynamic pair in very unique ways that...not to toot my own horn 'er nuthin' as she might say...but in ways that I just don't see elsewhere with any other characters. Kudos to those who recognized Euthyphro and other philosophical musings, I hope this chapter has entertained you and made you think, its got several more to go of course, as they're about to cross in to the beastman kingdom...but I'm afraid you're going to run out of double release days before the story reaches its climax. **

**Tomorrow will be 'God Rising' double release day so look forward to that! :) See you soon!**


	9. Surprises

As Ainz sat comfortably where he was, he took the necessary ingredients from his inventory and handed them to her. "This is how you make a 'Katsu Sandwich' with fried pork cutlet, toasted bred, and some cabbage. In one of the worlds I visited, this sandwich was often eaten for luck, and its name sounds similar to the phrase 'to win' in their tongue."

She started salivating as he explained how 'frying' worked, and drew more materials from his inventory, demonstrating how frying worked, and allowing her to try a piece before making the sandwich itself.

She looked at it curiously, like she'd found something odd, and popped it into her mouth like a peanut. Her face lit up with happiness, and then after she swallowed, she looked incredibly sad.

"You don't like it?" He asked curiously. "Bad after taste maybe?"

She immediately fell to her knees. "Nae, is nae tha! Is nae that atall!" She said, shaking her head so hard Ainz feared it might fall off of her neck.

"Is...well...ain't got no way to fry stuff. So...when yer done wit all this'n yah go home, ah don't get no fried food no more. Ah caint make this in the shop, an ahm gonna miss it." She looked longingly at the sandwich as he put it together, and took it from on her knees as if she was receiving a great treasure.

Ainz laughed uproariously at the absurdity, and he watched as she...for once, took tiny bites as if afraid to finish it. She took a bite, nibbled, swallowed, and did it again, it took a full thirty minutes for her to finish it, and when she finally did he said, "You like it?"

She looked like she was going to cry. "Uh huh, sooooo goooood." She said.

"Well why don't I just give you the frier and the means to prepare this in the future after we're all done?" He asked.

Her eyes lit up like stars and she clasped her hands together as if in prayer. "Ah'l take it!" She grinned, promising to risk her life for the ability to fry foods.

"Now that we've finished that, lets get to your studies shall we? I want you to spend an hour on our letters, then I want you to read to me from this book." He drew one out and handed it to her. "Tom Sawyer." She read the title aloud. "Whas'it about?" She asked curiously.

"Its about a clever young boy and his many misadventures as he grows up, I think you'll approve, he's...quite mischievious." Ainz replied.

"Ah like mischief." She said with a gleam in her eye.

"I know." Ainz said dryly.

"But sire...ah caint go handlin yer stuff when I look like this..." she said, standing up, "I ain't been clean in ah don't know how long...ain't ther somewhere round here ah can take a bath?" She asked.

"Write first, read second, bathe later." Ainz said.

"As m'master say." She said, and she wrote until he said to stop...and she cracked open the book and began to read, she fumbled word after word, but each time she fumbled, she went back and tried again and again till she got it. Whenever she got one right, he praised her and she blushed, after she read first one chapter, then another, he called a halt.

"Now, bring me your writing of your letters." He said, and she scurried over, got them, and brought them back to the Sorcerer King. She stood by nervously as he went through them, "You are showing improvement, I'm glad to see you're taking this seriously and doing so well, you're a smart one I think." He said.

Then she started crying and went down to her knees.

'What did I say...what did I say?!' Ainz wondered to himself, and he knelt in front of her and tilted her face up to meet his. "Whats wrong?" He asked.

"Well...like...yer majesty yer nice ta me an all that but its...well nobody never called me smart b'fore, they done tole me I'm pretty plenny, but ain't nobody never cared ta here a peasant girl thinkins on nuthin, only thin they wanna know from me is'n if my daddy still alive, 'r if they gots ta take me some place else if'n he ain't."

"I'm...learning...things." She forced herself to get the sentence out flawlessly, "And I'm grateful." She added.

Ainz sighed, the status of a human was not high in this world, the status of human women was less high than that except for the elite adventurer teams and the like. The status of a peasant woman...even lower.

"Listen to me Vanysa...do you trust me?" He asked.

"Wit everythin!" She said confidently.

"You are not defined by your birth, you are defined by what you do with the circumstances you were born into. Being a peasant doesn't make you less, being pretty doesn't make you less, being a woman doesn't make you less. You can always have things, no matter how poor you are, that can never be taken from you, only surrendered by you" He said.

"Like treasure?" She asked with wide eyes.

"No...well yes, but not that kind." He answered, "You can never have your self respect or honor taken, you can never have your integrity stolen, and your dignity is yours no matter what anyone does to you, you can throw them away, you can forget about them, but nobody else can touch them as long as you are not willing to let that happen." Ainz said. "There are people who will want to do that to you, they'll tell you your worthless without them...or that your value comes from your body alone, and how it can please them, but never believe it, they're trying to get you to give all those things I talked about, away forever. They want you to define yourself by your connection to them, some will use threats, some will use lies, some will tell it to children to make them into pliant adults, but it isn't so. You can take my word on that. Now, I believe...you wanted a bath, right?" He asked.

She sniffled and started wiping her nose on her sleeves, and the intelligent look in her eyes returned.

"I will never forget that, sire." She said with iron confidence, drawing a silent nod of acknowledgement from the Sorcerer King.

"Now as far as the bath goes..." Ainz thought it over, tapping his finger on his cheek..."I'm sure there must be a body of water around here somewhere...but I wouldn't want to risk you bathing in there with who knows what lying beneath the surface or where I cannot watch over you." He said.

She giggled, "Yer a king, an yer my god, yah can watch me whenever yah want to, ah don mind..." Her eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened they were...different again, "I know you will never hurt me. I trust you with my everything. Whatever you want, is yours." She said, her words were slow coming out, she was forming them flawlessly without the dialect that resulted from a lack of a formal education, she was clearly putting effort into it, but it wasn't just what she said or how she said it, it was the cold and clear intelligence. When she was whimsical, bouncy, playful, she didn't speak like this, she didn't have the coldness in her eyes, but she still displayed the ability to act in clearly patterned ways that appeared rational and thought out.

Whatever was wrong with her...he wondered if it might have been there 'before' the beastmen.

Then what she'd just said hit him, and his emotional dampener had to kick into overdrive, and just as it did, she started giggling and the glimmer of mischief was back in her eyes.

"So...a bath master...there some place? Ah gots ta stink somethin awful by now, an ah don't know ifn' you can smell me..." she lifted her arms and mimed the act of smelling something something terrible, "but ah tells yah this is bad."

"Oh...right...ah...why don't I show you to my home, there are baths there, and we can return here." He said.

She grinned, "Ah'd like tha a lot! I'd...like...that...a lot." She said, saying it twice to make sure she got it right.

"Alright, then lets go." He said, and opened up a gate and passed through it. Vanysa stepped in behind him without any hesitation, a complete faith that he took notice of.

"This way." He said, and she followed him over the rise, he couldn't see her, but he could feel and hear the way she moved, she was goose stepping, probably arms behind her back, turning her head around and taking everything in, her blonde hair bouncing behind her, every inch of her a beautiful comedy of sweetness and mischief...at least until the sadist came out. He'd heard what she said to the bearman who was even now dying of pain by the side of the road. You can't say something like that so off the cuff, so close to a victim to be...not without meaning it.

"There, use that changing room, put on something in there, and then go through the door at the other end, that is the women's bath."

He heard her feet move rapidly as she scurried up behind him and she tugged on his cloak. "I dont wanna leave m'master." She said, she gave him puppy dog eyes, but he held firm. "I am going to be in the mens bath over there." He said and pointed to another doorway. "You will be safe here, you don't need my protection in this place."

She gave him a look, "Master... s'not about protection." She looked away for a moment and pursed her lips, then glanced back resolute and said, "Ah won't be happy, thas all."

He sighed. "Never the less, the womens' bath for you."

She pouted, but let go of the fabric of his clothing and nodded dejectedly. "If'n yah say so sire." She moped overdramatically towards the door, glancing behind her, reminding him vaguely of old black and white cartoons when characters were shown to be excessively sad over terribly minor things. But he did not waver, and waited until she had gone all the way in before he entered the mens' baths himself.

_...men's bath..._

Ainz was enjoying a wonderful soak, this was the most enjoyable adventure...vacation...adventurcation...that he'd ever had. Vanysa was just impossible to either get rid of or get quite enough of, he hadn't laughed that much or that hard since coming to the new world. She treated him so differently than the others, despite having an apparently similar devotion to him.

She reminded me of some of his friends from before, it alleviated some of the stress and some of the loneliness that marked his existense...though he did still feel that guilt over dodging paperwork.

He was thinking about how he might make it up to Albedo & Demiurge for that when the screaming started.

_...women's bath..._

Vanysa was in paradise, the water was so hot and steamy, there was a bar of something for scrubbing, and it just peeled the dirt right off, she sank into the water and wiggled her toes, everything was clean, everything was perfect, she closed her eyes and lay back in bliss.

She opened them again when she heard someone screaming at her.

A little girl about twelve was shrieking at her, "Who the hell arrrree youuuuuuu?!" Followed closely by a woman who at first Vanysa thought might be her mother, but then realized...nope...definitely not...wings...horns...not human, who screamed the same thing but added, "How the hell did you get in here?!"

Another young girl stepped into the bath seemingly indifferent to her presence, this one...obviously an elf.

Vanysa stood up with a splash and waved, "Hiya! I'm Vanysa, an am here cause god tole me to come here an take a bath, see, ah kinda stunk cause ah ain't had one in awhile, so...ah asked mah god if'n ah could bathe somewhere, an he said here, he opened up some hole, an then a done stepped through an found m'self here, he say to use the womens' bath..." he could see her pouty face and her arms cross over her chest as she spoke that last part, "but don't wanna, ah wanna be where m'master is." She plopped back down into the water.

There was silence for a moment, as if they could scarcely comprehend the absurdity of what they were seeing and hearing. Aura started laughing.

"I like her, she talks funny." Aura said, pointing at her.

"Well ah like you, yer cute lookin!" She said and waved at Aura.

"Who is this god you speak of?" Albedo asked, her voice carrying the icy chill of death's own grip.

"Oh, he's kinda a bone daddy type, calls imself the Sorc'rer King, he's over in tha mens' bath if'n yah wanna talk to 'im. D'ya know im?" Vanysa asked, seemingly oblivious to death staring at her in the form of Albedo and Shalltear.

She pointed towards the mens baths, and the two naked guardians rushed for the door as fast as they could.

Vanysa looked over at Aura..."They like tha alot?" She asked curiously.

Aura shrugged. "No, just when it comes to other women around Lord Ainz."

"Oh. They love'im?" Vanysa asked as she undid her hair and let it fall into the water.

"Well sure, what's not to love, isn't he handsome, and strong, and smart...he's everything." Aura grinned.

"Ah caint argue w'that, but ah mean...wait...yer a kid right, yah don't be knowin lots about this stuff?" Vanysa asked.

Aura pouted a bit, looking almost like a dark elf version of Vanysa in her expression. "I'm over eighty years old you know."

Vanysa cocked her head to one side, "That a lot fer elves?"

Aura sighed and let her arms fall back into the water. "No, guess not."

"Well then ah ain't sayin nuthin." Vanysa said.

On the other side of the baths however...silence was the very last thing there was.

Though they had rushed over, naked and dripping and utterly infuriated, the moment they were before their lord they were immediately kneeling. Ainz turned around so that he was not watching.

"What are you doing trying to invade the men's bath?!" He snapped.

"Ahhh...m'lord...who is that girl?" Albedo asked, "Is she a guest, or is she an invading insect to be disposed of?" The way she finished the sentence clearly expressed her preference.

"She is pretty though..." Shalltear said, licking her lips.

"Yes she is a guest, she is a servant I picked up in the Draconic Kingdom, she's tending to me while I tame the beastmen." Ainz replied. "Now go back to the women's bath again and behave yourselves."

They glumly obeyed, and Ainz brushed off their attempts to join him in the mens bath. The two eased themselves back into the water and stared at Vanysa.

"So...how'd yah know the Sorc'er King?" She asked.

"We are his servants, guardians of his home and we carry out his will." Albedo said formally.

"Neat! Me too! He's tha god ah wasa talkin about, ain't he jus the best!" She grinned with such shining enthusiasm and clasped her hands together, staring up at the ceiling she thought was a sky.

"OK...so she is at least that sensible." Shalltear said, holding up one hand, tilting it palm up beside her. "Lord Ainz is a god, and maybe she's just an ant, but she has to have some smarts."

Aura got a bright smiling look on her face, "I'll be right back, I have to go get someone." She jumped up and out of the bath, and Vanysa waved farewell to her.

"Bye lil elf girl, stay cute!" She grinned, while the others took no notice.

Albedo snorted, "Even an ant would recognize an obvious god like him as what he is."

"Yah," Vanysa said, "Tha only thing is...he jus won do nothin with me...ah done offered him mah body lotsa times, an even though he keeps lookin ever time ah make sure'ee can see...he don't take advantage." Vanysa pouted again.

Time stopped for a moment when Albedo and Shalltear heard what Vanysa just said. Their killing intent began to grow, and as if finally detecting the hostility, the bubbly bouncy starlike gleam in her eyes faded and they turned cold an intelligent, like it was another person.

"He is a god, gods can do what they wants, its the responsibility of the servants of a god to offer everything and hold back nothing, if he wished me, he could have me, for pleasure, for pain, for service, isn't that what I'm supposed to think? Surely you're not going to suggest that the Sorcerer King deserves anything less than total surrender, absolute obedience, and perfect service?" She waved one hand around in a circle as she rattled off her statement, and it had an immediate effect on the two guardians.

"OK she's got a point." Albedo said.

"I can't argue with that." Shalltear replied.

"Still, you shouldn't offer yourself to your betters like that." Albedo said snarkily.

"If I offered myself to a lesser, wouldn't I be offending the greater by implying the lesser is worth more of myself than the greater is?" Vanysa asked reasonably.

Albedo thought that over. "Maybe, but I don't have to like it."

There was splashing in the mens bath, and they could hear the sound of another male guardian, Demiurge.

Shalltear thought it over..."Well come to that, how long have you been in here, shouldn't you go check to see if there is anything he requires?"

Vanysa thought for a moment, the bubbly look came back into her eyes and she popped up rapidly to her feet, "Yah right, thankee lil girl, I think yer very cute too! Bye pretty guardian lady!" She waved as she rushed over for a robe and threw it on, darting out the door, leaving Albedo laughing out loud at a fuming Shalltear who...it seems did not like being referred to as a little girl.

Vanysa darted over to the mens bath in her robe and immediately flung herself into a prostrate position behind the Sorcerer King.

"Sire its done been a bit an ah ain't checked to see whatcha need, can ah serve yah somehow?" She asked.

"Who is this?" Demiurge said curiously. "Aura mentioned that you'd picked up someone new I should see."

"Raise your head and rise Vanysa." Ainz said with his back to her.

Vanysa stood up and saw Demiurge there, "Hiya, I'm Vanysa, I'm a servant of this here god, who're you?" She asked.

"I am Demiurge, guardian of Nazarick." He said.

"Whas Naz'rick?" She asked in an innocent voice.

"This. This is Nazarick." Demiurge said patiently.

"Well Naz'rick sure be pretty. Ah ain't never seen nothin like it. Yah do a good job ah think, swhat a god should get, good service!" She gave a tight but firm nod of absolute certainty.

Demiurge looked over his shoulder at Ainz. "Sire...is she...bound for any purpose I would like to give her a tour...if that is alright?"

"Only a brief one." Ainz said, "We resume our journey soon."

"Just a highlight or two then, as you say sire." Demiurge said.

"You may remain in your robe, only carry your clothes, we'll give them to a maid to clean for you." Demiurge said to Vanysa.

She grinned and snatched them up and followed as he started to walk.

"How do you know the Sorcerer King?" Demiurge asked.

"He done saved me, an he killed a whole lot..." A sadistic gleam came into her eyes and she locked her gaze with Demiurge, "He killed them...so beautifully...their screams...music...such beautiful music...I wanted to weep for joy...and make music of my own."

Demiurge laughed, "Would you like to see one of our...music rooms, then Vanysa?"

"Ahd love that, thankee!" She said, and she began to skip beside him.

'What an...interesting girl...' Demiurge thought to himself as he lead her to see the workroom of Neuronist Painkill.

**AN: Well this has been fun, tomorrow is your last double release day, short of further vampiring yourselves at blood banks (I have never run into actual vampires at these things sadly), or donating food to food banks...or donating money the charity organization I mentioned in previous charities, sooo you'll be back to daily or semidaily updates.**

**Either way I hope you continue to enjoy the ride. ;)**


	10. Musical Debut

Demiurge walked next to the bubbly girl with a steady clip, and he took careful note of the way she walked, she had a funny little goose step and kept her hands folded behind her back. Her hair bounced behind her and she was seemingly heedless of the fact that she was only in a robe. "You're an odd one, aren't you?" Demiurge asked.

Her walk shifted immediately to a more purposeful stride, a shift so rapid he was caught offguard, and the bouncy look in her eyes shifted to something sharp as a mystic blade as they gazed at him without even the slightest sign of fear or hesitation. "I am. I know I am. I walked through nightmare, hell, weak, suffering, tortured and tormented, losing everything...and I ate the ones responsible, and I liked it. I cut the ones responsible, and I loved it, I knelt before absolute power, and worshiped its source as the god it is, it shields me, teaches me, guides and protects me, and I will remain loyal to it forever, hunting what he tells me, offering whatever he wants of me, and enjoying the suffering he permits me to inflict on those who deserve it most...how I love it when they deserve it...perhaps I am broken and odd...but in a way...it has made me whole...and I want to make music again...music in tribute to the one true god of this world..."

Demiurge held her eyes during her statement, her voice was almost 'transcendent' haunting, lilting, low, like she were singing, and it was quite charming, then just as suddenly as she finished speaking, the bouncy behavior was back and she reached out and impulsively took his hand. "Now show me tha way eh? I wants to hear some singin!" She giggled.

A few minutes later Demiurge brought her to the work room of Neuronist Painkill. "Are you sure you want the music?" Demiurge asked with a wry and challenging grin. Vanysa grinned and nodded rapidly, bouncing her hair behind her and smiling happily. "Ah do ah do ah do! But ehhh...what'd they do to make em need tah sing?" She asked.

"Does it matter?" Demiurge asked curiously.

She nodded again, "Course'n it does."

"Why?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

"Cause a couple reasons, yah see..." She began, and the bubbly face faded into one of cold calculation...

"The ones who deserve to suffer, should suffer what they deserve, they are plentiful, and make the world a better place not by existing, but by dying, and they serve a useful function, warning others not to be like them, not to disobey, to not deprive others of what is theirs, their suffering creates stability on which great rulers such as my divine lord can more easily build their desired world, target the ones who deserve it, and leave the rest to loyally serve those who deserve to be served, and the structure of the world remains true to the vision of its rightful ruler...and also...revenge can only be taken on those who deserve to have vengeance taken...and last...they always know just why they're suffering, no confusion, only clarity and pain...just like they should have..."

She had a happy gleam in her eye again and she said further, "Plus ah know thas what makes mah god a happy god, cause he hurts the ones who hurt people, he protects whas his, so ah wanna make im happy by hurtin whats tries ta hurt im by takin whas his!" She said with a giggle and squeezed his hand.

Demiurge laughed loudly, "I think I begin to see why he finds your company enjoyable, come, follow me, the ones within tried to steal from Lord Ainz, they invaded his home, attacked and killed his servants, and tried to rob it afterwards. But one in here in particular is worse than all the others, he was bad enough that he was actually raised from the dead purely to punish him. We bring his former slaves down sometimes to let them satisfy their thirst for revenge, he had three of them, female elves, he apparently enjoyed abusing them a great deal, it incensed Lord Ainz very much, so...he will be your first...concert, if you can manage it."

He looked at her face to see how she took that statement, and he saw gleeful eager sadism, it was quite pretty on her small frame.

Demiurge held his eyes on her as he opened the door, wondering if she'd live up to what she seemed to be. She stepped through easily and looked around, she began to bounce up and down, hopping from one foot to the other and clapping. There against the wall was a terror stricken naked man.

Neuronist Painkill was standing near a table when the door opened, and she glanced at the perky happy looking girl and said without hesitation..."Is this a new one to play with, Demiurge?"

Demiurge shook his head, "No, this one is going to be doing some playing, lets see how she works."

Vanysa looked over to Neuronist Painkill and waved, she skipped over and bent forward at the waist, "Hiya, I'm Vanysa, ah gets ta make some music in yer music room today, can I see yer tools?"

Neuronist was much amused by this oddity and stepped aside, gesturing to the table, "Be my guest." Her voice betrayed her amusement, but Vanysa was not one to be put off by doubt, she went from one object to another, before selecting something in particular and holding it up to herself, and then cradling it gently as one would a newborn babe. "Yes...you are my instrument." She smiled down at it and the sadism shown in her eyes. Neuronist & Demiurge watched with curiosity as the scene unfolded.

She looked over her shoulder at the two beings and said, "May I play you a song...?" She asked.

Demiurge let loose a small grin and gestured to the figure who was secured to the wall. "I'm afraid I have little experience," she said as she walked over, and Demiurge saw that she had selected a simple hammer, crude...but effective, "but in honor of my lord, I must make the best music that I can." Her steps were slow and short, but Demiurge saw absolutely no hesitation in her movement, she drew inexortably closer, and he realized as he saw the ice in her eyes, that this too was part of the music, the man was struggling, but it was truly hopeless. When she came close to him, she leaned in, so close that her breasts were pressed to his flesh, it had to be a very pleasurable sensation, the first such he'd had in a very long time...but as he watched he realized this was not the kindness it appeared. Her fingers traced over his body, and her smile was warped, like a mockery of joy, he was terrified even as some pleasurable sensations came through her actions.

Her hand gently touched his cheek, it was a soft caress, and she said, "Do you enjoy girls...do you like them...like how we cry and scream...does our pain excite you...do you need us to be slaves to you...for you to be able to slake your lust...is that what you need, is that what you do...?" She asked and giggled as if the questions were a jest, is it not enough when we are beautiful, as I am...or willing...no...not for you those things are not enough." She traced the head of the hammer over his skin, the cold metal head sending him into spasms of terror. Vanysa's beauty had become terrible to behold, and she stepped back from him, breaking contact.

Her eyes shifted the gleeful happy look began to shine through, even in this dark place it seemed like she could shine, and she brought the hammer up...and then swiftly down on his pinky toe. He howled, and she raised the hammer up, and brought it to the knee of the other leg. Bit by bit she worked him over with her hammer, choosing a different part each time, and through these variable choices and an almost perfect timing, both Demiurge & Neuronist detected a kind of rhythm, a song in the sound of crunching bones and screams that were the result of well timed strikes, each one far enough apart that the pain of the last strike did not bleed in to the pain of the next strike, thus each pain was fresh and all its own, and bone after bone fractured and broke. When it was done, Vanysa turned around and skipped over to Neuronist and handed back the hammer. She looked at the pair and began to rock back and forth on her heels with her hands behind her back while the unfortunate vile adventurer sobbed in a still rhythmic fashion, and her little rocking was timed to it as if she were dancing.

"Well...how'd ah do, did ah make good music?" She asked sweetly as could be.

Demiurge and Neuronist shared a glance with one another, and as one they began to politely applaud.

"Where did you learn how to inflict pain that way, it was inspired, such complex work for a simple hammer?" Neuronist asked curiously.

"Ah learnt it from beastmen...an from men, monsters'r all over the place...an they're good teachers." She said with a cruel smile back at the whimpering figure.

Demiurge's smile was a genuine one, "Truly Lord Ainz found a very interesting servant."

She bowed. "Thankee. Ah try 'an be a good servan to 'im, ahm awful grateful tha he teaches me stuff."

"What does he teach you?" Demiurge asked curiously.

"All kinds ah stuff, he teaches me ta read an ta write, an he says ahm gettin good at it, an he teachin me tah think an use me head in new ways'n stuff, he even done give me books, aint nobody but rich nobles and such got those, but..." She pouted a bit.

"What?" Demiurge asked curiously.

"Whell...everbody should have em, cause books, they got good stuff in em, an ah like readin...ain't great at it yet, but ahm gettin ther an ah really like it, jus a damn shame nobody but rich folk gots em, maybe ifn' everbody had readin skill, the Sorc'r King could put all 'is thoughts in one place, then 'is book could go everwhere an everbody'd know how great he was w'thout ever havin to meet im." She pouted as Demiurge looked at her quietly.

She looked at him, and then looked down. "Did ah say sumthin dumb?" She asked demurely, worried about a poor impression on Lord Ainz's servants.

Demiurge laughed, "No, not at all, that was a very astute observation Vanysa. I'm very impressed."

She grinned her toothy grin.

"Tell me, would you like to join me for a...concert, next time you come to Nazarick, and perhaps dinner?" He asked.

"Ah'd like that, but ah'd have ta get the Sorc'r King's permission ta come back, an ta take the time away from servin 'im, ah hope yah unnerstand, he gots ta come first, ahm his servan, an ah gots ta do what he says or ahd be a bad servan." She said.

Demiurge grinned, "You have the proper attitude girl, come, we should return to the baths."

"Thankee!" She said with a happy smile and gave a little wave to Neuronist, "Bye bye Neuronist lady!" and Neuronist waved an awkward farewell of her own as Vanysa skipped along behind Demiurge and back the way she'd come.

"What a pleasant girl." Neuronist said to the helpless former adventurer. "I say she makes fine music...but I still think mine is better...what do you think...which do you prefer...hers...or mine?" Neuronist asked as she leaned in close to the shaking figure, stroking him similarly to how Vanysa had a little while before.

The screams that followed next were not more pleasant than the last, but nobody else was around to hear it.

Vanysa followed Demiurge back to the baths, and Ainz was dressed and ready to go, when she saw this, Vanysa's eyes snapped to calculated intelligence and all joy fled her gaze...she immediately rushed and prostrated herself at his feet, "Oh master, please...forgive me for coming late, she should have been here to dress you and provide you clothing and...to be absent when master requires something...unforgivable, especially when fulfilling my selfish desire to see your home...I am prepared for punishment."

Demiurge looked at her prostrate form in approval.

"Think nothing of it, I granted you permission for a partial tour." He said to Vanysa before turning to Demiurge.

"Is she a capable musician?" He asked.

"Very, my lord, you have chosen a servant whose merit is no mystery, even Neuronist liked her song, and you know what a music snob Neuronist Painkill can be." Demiurge said with a smile.

"You may rise Vanysa, I did not set a specific time limit on your visit, and your own clothing is not quite ready yet, so perhaps you'd like to choose something from Nazarick?" He asked.

She blushed, "Master how can a mere peasant were clothing from a god?"

"By your god's direction." He answered, and she lowered her gaze to the ground.

"As my lord commands." She said softly.

Within an hour of the arrival of a Pleiades maid, Vanysa found herself wearing the most comfortable clothing of her life, it felt like she was naked, so light and airy was the clothing, but it also pressed her chest upwards, almost as if they were on display, but as only her god would see, she was contented with it. So with that they returned to their former camp, with Vanysa hopping up and down waving goodbye to a Demiurge who...much to his dismay, found himself waving back.

On their return to camp, more undead horses were raised and the two resumed their ride into Beastman territory, with Vanysa peppering Ainz with questions about Nazarick...and to his surprise...questions about Demiurge. These were things he was happy to talk about, and they brought back happy memories, memories that shined all the more brightly because of the sunny disposition she brought to every sentence. It did all this so well in fact that they lost track of time...until they crossed a low rising hill and saw what lay on the other side.

Ash...barren ash and total desolation, cracked rocks, dead grass, and ruined land. What trees there were, were all dead and clearly had been for quite some time, there was evidence of fire, but also of flood and general ruination.

They brought their undead mounts up short and stared out over the scene before them, it reminded Ainz of the world he'd left behind with his humanity, there were small ruins of buildings here and there, nothing very big, small structural frames only, it was an ugly scene. "What the hell happened?" He wondered aloud.

"Ah don't rightly know sire, but ah betcha we done just found a part ah the reason the beastmen done chose to invade mah country." She said in awe at the devastated hellscape before her.

"I think you may be right, but to confirm, we need to find someone who can answer questions, lets move farther on, we'll see what we can learn about what happened here." Ainz said practically, and he prodded his horse into a slightly faster walk. Vanysa was quick to follow behind him.

"As yah say m'lord, ah'll be with yah the whole way!" She said happily and trotted to just two paces behind him, smiling maliciously as she did so.

They moved to a nearby ruin, a fallen building made of simple crude bricks, there was no evidence it had been inhabited for quite some time, and no tracks were found in the area nearby.

"Whenever this happened, we are far removed in time from the cause." Ainz said. "This happened quite some time ago." He added, clarifying for Vanesa.

"How'd yah know?" She asked curiously, "Yah weren't here when it happened, so...how'da yah know Sire?" She asked.

Ainz pointed to the soil and ash, "No foot steps, so it follows that unless the person had a magic spell for 'fly' then it happened recently. There is no smell of burning in the air, no smoke...all that suggests this happened awhile ago. Also, its been picked clean, no animals are here either, so its been entirely abandoned."

"Ah see." She said softly.

They moved their undead horses further along for awhile and only encountered more hellscape, eventually they came to a small canyon, and they looked down into it and saw numerous bodies just rotting there.

"Do beastmen bury their dead?" Ainz asked.

"I don't know sire." She asked, "I never got the chance to ask one."

Ainz rolled his eyes, it had been a foolish question.

"Strange how they're all down there like that, I wonder what happened." He said, and after they descended down and plucked out several of the bodies, the answer became clear.

"These are victims of violence." Ainz said flatly.

"How'd yah know that?" Vanysa asked as she trembled at the thought of someone casually obliterating the lives of so many monsters.

Ainz plucked out a held it up for her, "Look at this." Ainz said, "Its been defleshed, the same way you dress a chicken. I'll bet all of these were cannibalized and discarded, so the question is...were they willing sacrifices or unexpected ones?" He pondered.

"Ah don't know sire, but...ah think mebe those over there might tell yah if'n yah ask em." She said, and pointed to the other side of the small canyon where a group of bearmen were hauling a body destined to be discarded."

She began to jump up and down and shout, "heya! We gots some questions for yah, can yah stop a minute?" She shouted.

"Well...that is one way to stop a funeral procession in its tracks...if that is what it is at least..." Ainz said softly

**AN: Well, its late, I'm tired, if I'm going to keep my promise for the day then this chapter kinda had to be a little shorter. :) Still I think I set it up right, I'll leave it to you reviewers and readers to decide for yourself if I did or not.**

**Also...you get an extra day of double releases, so...enjoy. **


	11. Disaster's Form

The bearmen did NOT want to stop for a minute. They looked on in surprise as the bouncy Vanysa hopped up and down and waved her hand at them, her 'behavior' appeared to be friendly, but standing next to her as he was, he could feel the hate and hostility rising from her, he could see one of her eyes from where he was, and that one eye was filled with hate and sadistic longing. These were like the ones who tormented her, she appeared utterly fearless of them now, she'd seen that they could die, that they could be made to suffer, to beg, to plead for death and an end to pain...just like any human.

All the power had been ripped from them as Ainz had unleashed nightmare the likes of which they'd never imagined, and now their most helpless kind of victim had lost all fear of them...but retained all her hatred.

They did 'stop' in a manner of speaking, they were surprised to have been called out to at all, and they dropped the mutilated bodies that they had been dragging along and froze where they stood. They looked around and gradually all were pointing in her direction.

"Food! There's food!" They shouted together and they abandoned the corpses of their victims...friends...whatever they had been, and they rushed to the edge of the canyon. As Ainz and Vanysa watched, they figgited with agitation and shouted at the uncaring sky that she was beyond their reach. On closer inspection now that they'd come to the edge, Ainz could see that they were in terrible shape, some of them had splotches of red on their fur, many of them were much thinner than they should have been.

They were in a dire state, and they began to look for a way down into the canyon, one by one venturing down defiles that were very narrow, wide enough for a human easily enough, but not ideal for larger and thicker beastmen. Two of them slipped and fell with a scream, landing fifty feet below and moving no more afterwards. The rest made it down, and rushed to the other side, and searched just as frantically for a way up while Ainz and Vanysa watched.

Vanysa looked over to Ainz..."Sire...what should we do?" She asked.

"We wait." He said.

"For what?" She asked.

"For one of them to survive the trip up, they're no threat to me, which means they'll never get a chance to threaten you, and of course, we do need answers, right?" He asked rhetorically.

She nodded, "Ah guess so." She said with a shrug.

"So take a seat and make yourself comfortable, this will be awhile." He said in a somewhat bored voice.

He wasn't wrong, she and Ainz simply sat and milled around waiting for the beastmen to make the ascent. Every now and then Vanysa skipped over to the edge and looked down at the struggling figures. She leaned over the edge, bent at the waist and waved down at them with a happy smile and a sadist's eyes. "Hiya!" She shouted, "We're still up here! If'n yah wanna come get a taste of this delicious human meat, I'm ah waitin for yah!" She laughed and skipped away from the edge again and rocked patiently back and forth on her heels with her hands behind her back and humming patiently.

Ainz looked over at her after her third time doing this, with the bellows of angry and...apparently hungry beastmen following her from below as she moved away from the cliff.

"You do realize you're driving them utterly mad, right?" Ainz asked curiously.

She held up a finger, closed her eyes and smiled at him as she leaned forward ever so slightly. "uh huh, an ah hope it drives them right out of their minds too! Maybe they'll go so crazy they'll start tearing at each other, wouldn't that be fun?" She asked happily.

When her eyes opened they were full of hate. "Its the least they deserve for what they did to me and mine." She said, an edge in her voice that rarely appeared, came out over the frantic beastmen.

They could hear the scrabbling from over the edge, and two more beastmen fell to their apparent deaths before three managed to haul themselves up, one arm appeared first, and Vanysa couldn't resist.

"Ooooh so scary! C'mon beastmen, I'm delicious! Oh noooo, I've fallen down and hurt my ankle, I can't get away, a delicious meal for these big scary monsters!" She pretended to cringe and mad laughter came out from her as she mocked them, egging them on. The first one over the top was a bear man.

"Grasp heart." Ainz said, and with a squeeze...it fell backwards into the canyon without a scream. The other two assumed a misstep and proceeded up, and charged with desperate energy at Vanysa as she sat on a nearby rock with one leg over the other and her hands folded neatly over her knee.

"Grasp heart." Ainz said, and one of them fell dead. The other, either mad with hunger or filled with mad courage, was heedless of his comrades death and indifferent to the skeleton, he sought to just bowl the unusual undead over and get at the waiting woman beyond.

Ainz simply grabbed the beastman by the throat and squeezed, not enough to kill, but enough that despite all its thrashing, it was losing consciousness. Then he let go, allowing it to fall forward, limp as if dead, down to the ground.

He reached in to his pocket dimension and pulled out a rope, and secured its arms and legs as one would bind a hog.

"Not that I would ever doubt you sire, but...will that rope be enough? I like teasing them about eating me, I don't want to actually get eaten..." She paused and pondered for a moment, "though maybe that might be fun if it was by that handsome Demiurge guy." She winked at the Sorcerer King, who was glad his bones did not allow him to blush.

She giggled, and he answered, "I am sure they will be quite sufficient, the rope is enchanted, if he were capable of breaking its hold on him, I should not have been able to hold him fast until he lost consciousness." Ainz answered blandly.

"It may be awhile before he wakes up, so why don't you read to me for awhile first, and practice your letters." Ainz suggested, and she nodded and rushed to her pack to take out the things she needed.

A few moments later she was laying on the grass reading out loud, and as she got to the scene where Tom Sawyer convinced all the neighborhood boys to whitewash the fence for him, and started to giggle at the gullibility of them all, the beastman began to stir.

Ainz moved over to where it lay and knelt in front of it, he gestured for Vanysa to continue reading as he did so, and so she shrugged and resumed her practice. He waited, and the stirring revealed a gradually returning wakefulness, until a low grown escaped and the beastman tried to reach for his head, only to find he couldn't move his arm, his eyes snapped open in shock and darted around, he tried to shift and move, but found that he was even worse off than he first felt. It was then that he saw Ainz Ooal Gown kneeling just to the front left of him.

"Headache?" Ainz asked rhetorically, "Don't worry, it'll pass, though not for a bit, its a result of being choked. Now, I have questions, are you able to speak or are you useless to me?" He asked.

The beastman was about to roar, but as the dark aura and pressure began to come off of the Sorcerer King, the beastman felt the better of it and he remained still for a moment before saying..."I can speak."

"Good. Lets start at the beginning then. What is your name?" Ainz asked.

"Urzine." He said sullenly.

"What were you doing with those bodies?" Ainz asked.

"Throwing them away, they got the Red Patch." He said.

"What is the 'Red Patch' Ainz asked.

"Disease, can't cure it, can't treat it, magic doesn't work on it, when it hits, you die and that is it. We cut away the useable meat from the bodies, and throw the rest in the canyon." The beastman said glumly. "Not much usable meat though this time, not even enough for a meal, I'm so hungry...hey...any chance I could eat that human female? I'd tell you anything for a bite." He said hopefully.

"Not a chance, she's my servant and I would be a bad master to break faith with her that way." Ainz answered nobly.

The beastman sighed. "Bad luck or none." He said.

"When did you last eat a full meal?" Ainz asked.

"A month ago." The beastman answered glumly.

"Didn't the invasion of the Draconic Kingdom supply plenty of food?" Ainz asked casually.

Vanysa's head snapped up from what she was doing, and she shot to her feet and went over to where the beastman lay bound at her master's feet, and she kicked the beastman full in the face.

It grunted and tried to snap at her feet, but Ainz responded by grabbing its ear and twisting...hard. It started to struggle.

"Stay focused Urzine. Didn't the invasion supply enough food?" Ainz asked further.

As the skeletal king released his grip, Urzine sighed dejectedly. "No. See...wait you came from over the Draconic Kingdom, right?" He asked.

"We did." Ainz replied.

"So...wait I heard the cities all fell, and all the humans were gone...some of the village occupiers checked those places out, they found lots of beastman bodies, all dead in unpleasant ways...did you have something to do with that?" Urzine asked.

"Well if by something to do with it, you mean did we do exactly that, then yes, I did. She is my servant." Ainz said, gesturing to Vanysa, who gave him a sadistic smile and a little wave of her fingers, and licked her chops as if looking at a delicious meal.

Urzine shook with fear. "Continue, you were saying?" Ainz asked.

"You saw the ruined lands?" He asked.

"We did." Ainz answered.

"Would you believe it was once a paradise?" The beastman asked.

"Hard to believe." Ainz said.

Urzine nodded. "It was though, our whole kingdom was, now most of it is like that." Neither Ainz nor Vanysa failed to noticed that he actually started to sound...sad. It was an emotion Vanysa didn't think they even could feel.

"It was all...beautiful, rolling grasslands, great forests, and canyons like that were home to great rivers, now...its all ruin and death." He sighed.

"We don't 'only' eat that one's kind." He said, nodding in Vanysa's direction, and had she not been surprised by the statement, she might have hit him again. "We can eat all kinds of other beasts, and did, we used to have enormous harvests of cattle and sheep and goats and other creatures...though her kind taste better, these are easier to manage."

Vanysa went to her knees, her eyes glazed over and she stared silently ahead at nothing.

"But our numbers grew, so our food had to grow, and that was fine, we'd just expand the ranches and raid a few more villages. We can always count on humans to make more food for us." Urzine said and licked his mouth.

Vanysa for her part, stared at nothing still, his words entering her mind and drumming at her thoughts.

"Then the Red Patch struck our cattle, those made most of the food, so we ate more sheep, goats, and so on, and it started infecting our people, like those poor dead bastards, and it got to the goats and the sheep, and we still had all those who needed to eat, so we tried to eat fish from the river, we dammed several of them up and the grass dried, then the trees dried up, then a fire hit, and it burned all over the place, fish aren't that big, so we cleared those out quick, and lots of other things too, then the bloom hit, green stuff grew and choked the rivers, the dams broke when we couldn't maintain them, and our cities rioted from hunger and it all fell apart, we even ate all the humans we kept in the breeding pens, human meat takes to long to raise, but feeding everybody off that was worth only a few meals...so our strongest went to invade the Draconic Kingdom...we thought we could take the whole country to use as a great nation sized ranch to feed us all forever. I guess that won't work now." Urzine said regretfully.

"I see the problem." Ainz said bluntly.

"Aye, there be to many of yah still!" Vanysa shrieked as she snapped out of her stupor, and took the dagger from her belt and dove at the beast, stabbing the beastman over and over and over again, shrieking her hatred and her rage, the beast roared under her and tried to wiggle away and resist, but it was no use.

Ainz reached out to stop her, but as he saw her frantic desperate screaming, he pulled back his hand and let her finish, this one wasn't necessary, they could find another, and she needed this it seemed. She severed his ear, stabbed out his eyes, cut off pieces of his snout and began to skin him alive, she was slick with blood and fur and she continued until the beastman went into shock and fainted from the pain. It was only when that happened that she seemed to have had enough, her face was streaked with blood and fat and fur as she stood with the beastman's head between her feet, then she grabbed it by its nostrils with two fingers and lifted up the head, and drew the knife across its throat. "Just DIE!" She shrieked and shook with the after effect of her emotional state. She stepped away from the beastman and sat in front of it directly next to the Sorcerer King, her knees pulled up to her chest, heedless of the blood and filth she was now covered in, she watched it bleed out and expire.

She didn't say anything, and neither did Ainz, not until the bleeding slowed and the breathing of Urzine stopped.

"Vanysa?" Ainz asked.

"Yes sire?" She replied without looking away from the corpse.

"Are you alright?" He asked with concern.

She didn't answer for a second, then looked up at him, turning her knife over and over in her hand, and Ainz saw a joyful expression on her face.

"I feel wonderful...just wonderful your majesty." She said with a breathy, soft, and excited voice.

"Can we just...watch for a little longer?" She asked.

"Very well." He said, and they sat and watched 'nothing' for awhile, it was as if she couldn't accept that she'd actually killed one, tormented one and made it suffer as she'd suffered, it had feared her, even if it had been bound and helpless, it had felt her impotent hatred, fear, and pain just the same, as she took everything that had been their gift to her...and turned it back upon one of their hated number.

Finally she stirred from her position and after wiping her hands, put away the book and remounted the undead horse.

"Sire, at your leisure." She said.

"Yes, lets get going." He said, and returned to his own mount.

"Where do you wish to go sire?" She asked patiently.

Ainz pointed along the length of the canyon. "I expect if we go that way, we'll find a beastman town, or even what passes for one of their cities."

"Sire...may this unworthy one ask how you know this?" She asked with evident curiosity in her voice.

"Simple, even beastmen need water, this canyon was carved by water, so it is reasonable to expect a water source somewhere along its length, and there we will find a population of them." He said reasonably.

"Yer one helluva king sire." She said, her peasant dialect returning, and they rode off over the broken hellscape that was the beastman kingdom.

"I wonder if we'll encounter any of the village occupiers, or if Demiurge simply moved to quickly for them. I did authorize him to use Nazarick forces so...I suppose I'll have to ask him." Ainz said, obviously just thinking out loud to himself.

"Sire you are...going to kill them, right?" She asked uncertainly, she looked at him beside her, and held the reins of her horse tightly.

"Most of them, it may be that it isn't necessary to eliminate all of them, they may be of use some day, and it would be reckless to wipe out a potential asset." He said reasonably.

"Please...majesty...please kill them all...they can't be forgiven for what they've done, so many terrible things, they deserve it, they deserve it so much I wish I could raise them from the dead ten thousand times, just so I could kill them ten thousand times more." She said, her voice was cracked and she could not even cry from the pain within, she couldn't even scream her desire, she just barely managed to choke out what words she had.

Ainz sighed, "I am a King." He said. "I will humble these beings so much that they will fear the border as a place of nightmre, where their kind can only go with violent intent if they wish to die violently and in pain, but I am not a mere butcher seeking slaughter. When they are broken, they will be permitted...those who survive...to rebuild. Perhaps they will build more wisely in the future, and become a boon to your people. I must take the long view, not short vengeance." He said.

She sniffled, wiped her nose, and looked down, "I would never wish to be a king then."

Ainz laughed, "They say only true fools actually wish to be king, and they that do are always bad ones, the good ones accept the burden, the bad ones only seek the pleasure. As I prefer to be a good one, I accept the burden, and yes, the guilt, for what must be done. The beastmen will be humbled, but not exterminated. When half their nation has perished, I will warn them never to venture west again with violent intent. Can you content yourself with the screams of half a nation?" Ainz asked the now smiling Vanysa.

"Ah guess thas fair..." She said, "They ate half mah country...but...it seems a waste ta lose all that meat n'stuff. Majesty, think maybe they can make good coats ifn' we skin them, ah mean if they gonna die anyway, might as well have a use for em, right?" She asked, with sadistic glee in wide glassy eyes.

Ainz paused and thought for a moment, "A good point, a fair amount of coin might come from selling coats made of their fur."

"Demiurge." Ainz said in a message.

"Yes my lord?" The archdemon replied.

"I need you to have Shalltear open a gate at each of the last three cities, start skinning the dead beastmen for their fur, have them made into blankets and coats, and if any of the meat is salvageable, harvest that and send it as food aid to the royal faction of Re-Estize. I'm going to continue moving through the beastman kingdom, so ensure those acting on your orders follow behind me to search for additional 'materials'. If you captured any alive, use them as you see fit." Ainz added.

"As you say my lord." Demiurge replied, "Truly you have a brilliant mind to have come up with such a clever notion."

"Oh this wasn't mine," Ainz answered, "This one belongs to Vanysa, credit her next time you see her."

"I...will be sure to do that sire, should I see that she is properly rewarded for her service to Nazarick thus far?" Demiurge asked politely.

"When we return to Nazarick again, yes, this was a very messy day, we'll need to use the baths again, turns out that bearmen have a lot of blood and fat, and torturing one to death got a lot on her clothing. Expect us this evening after we've reached our next camp." Ainz added.

"It will be done my lord." Demiurge said, "It would be my pleasure." His voice carried a slight upward inflection that piqued Ainz's interest, but he chose to say nothing for now, and they road on in peace until seeing a long wall in the distance.

"A beastman town...at last..." Vanysa said with bloodlust in her voice, "I'm going to enjoy this." She said hungrily.

**AN: Well here is upload number two for the day, maybe a third one pending if I can manage it, I am a bit tired, but you guys deserve it so...I'll see what I can do. :) If you're wondering, I don't plan on continuing that one shot 'Desires of a Demon' that was just a fun little experiment on my part, driven by a fan request. It actually might be interesting to do a whole series just based on those two, but its not really something I'm planning on at the moment, I'll show highlights of a fondness and mutual compatibility, and maybe imply a few things here and there, but the rest of it will be left to your imaginations. God Rising has enough plot elements as it is. **

**If you enjoy this story thus far and wish to support the author's favorite cause (I don't profit from this personally, and would not choose to) as a show of appreciation, then you may do so by donating a dollar or so to: bdgiving dot org. Till next time, enjoy, and leave reviews if you like. :) **


	12. Kingdom Wide Suicide

They did indeed reach a beastman town, however to call it a town was to be excessively generous. It reminded Ainz of the refugee camps he'd seen in the news...one in particular, it had been massacred, and like that, this town was dead. The land around the town was a wasteland like everything else, they passed by a small pond on the way to the town, but Vanysa did not even want to touch it, it had turned green with some foul thing growing over the top of it. The entry to the town was a broken wall, signs of battle were all over it, they walked in and found the first skeleton, a beastman, but of an unfamiliar variety.

The buildings they saw were scorched by flame, and bodies had been carved up, those with red patches on their fur had only been partially butchered, the rest was left to rot. Vanysa looked over the dusty remnants of a town and said, "They musta been right hungry." She pouted, she'd expected to enjoy watching her god kill all the beastmen...but they went and died first, probably just to spite her personally! She folded her arms and let out an annoyed 'Hmpf!'

"Agreed, butchered where they fell, you don't do that unless you simply can't bear to wait, so this is what it is like..." He said.

"Whas what like?" She asked.

"Trophic cascade." He said.

"Majesty ah hear yah sayin words, but ah donno what tha hell yah mean by em?" She asked further as they kicked aside a door that had been mostly destroyed already, and Ainz looked around.

"This was a business once." He said as he looked at the shelves and the counter, he traced his finger along the dust that coated the surface of the wood behind which a clerk would have once stood to serve his customers. "There is nothing here, lets move on." He said, and went back out the way he came. They remounted their undead horses and trotted onward.

"Trophic cascade is what happens when one problem begets another. Let me give you an example, suppose you and a group of people you live with lived on fish and dear, but your numbers grow so much that you eradicate the dear, now you must live off of fish, right?" He asked.

"Yes sire." She said, her eyes were clear and focused and locked on the red orbs that were his eyes.

"You are so many that you eat many more fish out of a lake, and soon there are few fish to eat...does the problem stop with just you?" He asked

"Doesn't it?" She asked.

"No." He answered, "Not only you ate the dear, wolves at them also, and the dear at vegetation in abundance, and now the wolves go hungry and die off or leave, and the vegetation grows unchecked and chokes a river, the river backs up and the water flow becomes a trickle, now all the life dependent on the river down its length is in danger as well, the vegetation there dries up, and with no vegetation, the dear leave there also, and worse, the wind now blows the soil away, creating greater erosion, the birds leave as the trees die, and they must go elsewhere. The erosion becomes worse and the river's path alters as new channels are cut, the water supply of countless others, people and animals, is all but wiped out. With the loss of fish that ate things in the lake, a terrible form of life called algae grows and chokes the waters, killing the frogs that ate insects, from standing water at the backed up river come an epidemic of mosquitoes, and they bear terrible diseases unchecked. Eventually one problem leads to another, and the entire region is completely ruined, all because one group of ate to much and grew to many." Ainz said, and shook his head sadly.

"How do you know this?" She said with awe.

"I saw it on another world. This place here, once a paradise, was turned into a wasteland, and I am certain it was due to the excesses of the overly large beastman population. Even if they had been successful in consuming half your nation and turning the other half into a giant ranch of human livestock, it wouldn't have solved the problem for long, a generation, two...maybe three?" Ainz stroked his skull and shook it. "Damn fools."

"Why wouldn't it be successful?" She asked curiously, she paused as they came to a fountain and approached it, inside it was dry and dusty.

"That's why." He said, pointing to the dry fountain.

"They'd solve their food problem, but not water, and not the behavior that lead them to destroy themselves, this 'Red Patch' disease probably resulted directly from their own behavior, at a guess, they were raising to much food to close together, a disease 'changed' allowing it to infect a neighboring species, then spread like wildfire in an unprepared population, creating a shortage that forced them to in turn consume what food they still had, then forage on the environment, depleting populations, destroying their rivers and water supplies, and compelling them to invade their neighbors just to survive, and now they're cannibalizing their own since the invasion failed." AInz said matter of factly as Vanysa got back up on her undead horse.

"If it helps you to know...your revenge began before the actions that merited it, they were destroying themselves." He said, and they rode onward, eventually finding their way out of the dead town.

"Think we'll come across whoever did that, your majesty?" Vanysa asked curiously.

"Maybe, if they got enough meat, I notice they lack farms, it seems they're obligate carnivores for the most part, perhaps some have more dietary options, but if the only thing they can eat is meat, then any population growth beyond a given point becomes locally unsustainable and they'll destroy themselves again." Ainz said matter of factly.

They were quiet for awhile as they looked over the ruined landscape, there were few of any other animals around, Ainz thought he saw a snake once, but it might have just been a stick. Vanysa covered her face to keep the dust from blinding her, and not for the first time since his arrival in the New World, Ainz found himself appreciating the benefits of an undead body.

The wind settled down eventually, and Vanys a spoke up, "My lord...do you think they deserve to be killed?" She asked.

"Don't you?" He asked.

She turned at the waist so that she was fully facing him, she raised her hands to her chest and pressed her open palms over her heart. "I truly do, with every beat within my breast I truly do...what they did...if they have no choice but to eat meat, perhaps I could understand it...given several lifetimes, I might even forgive it." She shook her head violently, "But the wanton torture and abuse of us all before hand, no...never that. I eat cattle, but I do not torture the cow before butchering it. I treat it kindly, because its life will nourish me, the least I can do is ensure that it does not live an existence of pain that it neither deserves nor understands."

Ainz briefly reflected that this was the longest she had been able to speak without reverting to her less refined behavior and speech patterns, he wasn't sure if that was good or...not, but he set that aside and asked her instead, "Well, since all of those who did that are now dead...do you think those who live here deserve to suffer your revenge?" His voice carried a curious note of inquiry, and she turned back to the front of her horse and held the reins again, she looked down at the dust under the horse's feet as it blew past.

"Maybe not...but maybe they do. They seem to be destroying themselves with all this so...maybe their punishment is self inflicted?" She bit her lip..."I meant what I said to the bearman before. That I wanted to wipe out his entire species, but should I really want to do that? Is it fair to hurt the ones who didn't do anything, just because they look like a few others who did me dirt a few times?" She ran her fingers over her head and then reached back and grabbed the long braid of golden hair that hung down to the small of her back. She brought it to the front of her body and played with it, twisting it in her hands as she thought it through.

"Ah...wants it...bad though." She said and the madness filled her eyes and she snapped her head to her right to look at her master.

"It hurts all tha damn time...ah wants it ta stop an it stops when ah hurts em...an so many of em deserve it all...and so much more...so much...much more. She held her hands up near her face and looked down into her palms...they ate everyone who loved me, and that was bad enough, but they also showed me which people I loved, didn't actually love me, cause they done left me tah die while they saved therselves. They done took everthin, everthin...an they taste so good'n...an the screams...if'n ah know they deserve it...ah love ther screams, is a right wonderful song..." She said, and laughed a little, throwing her head up to the sky and arching her back as she chuckled to herself.

Ainz let her ramble, then he asked, "But do the ones who live here...deserve it? And best of all, how do you know?"

His voice brought her back to reality for a moment and she answered, "Proly not, cept them ones that breed humans like cattle...but see, ah don't rightly think there be a choice. Some yah, some nah...but since ain't no nation gonna take in people what go around eatin other citizens. They cain't stay how they is, there be jus to many of em." She said reasonably, the stark madness was gone, but her speech...well there it was again.

"Some years ago, a servant of mine reduced a total population to some ten thousand strong, as unpleasant as that was, it was necessary at the time as they were no longer going to have the room they thought they were going to have, since I prevented their extermination of the dwarves. This population faces a similar issue, only farther along, if they could be properly supplied then they would regain their strength, but we saw where that went with your country, they grew and then invaded for more." Ainz said thoughtfully.

"Their land needs time to recover, some of it can be aided with magic, I can cause the rains to come and create fish to populate the rivers that other life might feast on, I could grow back grass and accelerate the growth of trees, yet doing so is pointless unless they are under wise enough rule that they do not repeat the same stupid mistake, so first we solve that problem." He said.

"What're we gonna do then?" She asked him curiously.

"The same thing we do every time Vanysa, we're going to destroy the ones responsible, and to that end we go to their capitol city, when that place is dead, the rest of the country will become aware of my presence here, and I will address the next set of issues." He said cryptically.

Finding the capitol turned out to be fairly easy, simply find a half dead half starved beastman, and when it saw Vanysa, capture it when it stupidly tried to charge at her for a meal.

In this case, they found a tigerman. Ainz had its arms broken and a leg to boot in a few seconds, it was neither withdrawing nor resisting anymore, but the confusion has not left its sullen and desperate eyes.

"Which way is your capitol?" He asked.

It stared daggers at him. "Shall I leave you here for your brethren to find? From what I've seen of your people, you are not kind to one another, how long do you think it will be before you are cannibalized?"

The tigerman started to tremble.

Ainz held out his skeletal hand in an almost inviting gesture. As he looked more closely the tigerman was much leaner than he should have been...and that was a weakness most profound.

"Act as my guide to your capitol, then I will heal you, and I will even give you something to eat when we stop for the evening...and when I am finished with my business there, I will allow you to go free." Ainz said putting as much magnanimity into his voice as he could. The tigerman looked over at Vanysa hungrily. She spat at him in response, he snapped his jaws angrily.

"Do that again and I will remove your lower jaw." Ainz said. "She will not be your food." He said, and unleashed a fraction of his killing intent, prompting the broken beast to attempt to prostrate himself and...manage 'something' close to it with his broken limbs.

"Will you act as my guide, or do you want to stay here?" Ainz asked.

"I...will guide you...great one." The tigerman said as he tried to survive the terrifying feeling of the skeletal figure's killing power.

A scroll later and the tigerman was restored to his former health, and Ainz reached in to his pocket dimension and withdrew a ham. "As a show of good faith." He said, and threw it to the tigerman, who looked at it almost lustfully, and consumed it with a rabid desperation that was almost pitiable for what must have once been a noble looking figure.

"What is your name?" Ainz asked.

"Rargnan." The tigerman replied.

"Then get walking Rargnan. How far away is the capitol?" Ainz asked.

"Three days from here." He said.

"And if you ride a mount that does not tire and we pause only for you to sleep?" Ainz asked.

"A day and a half...maybe less." He answered uncertainly.

A moment later Ainz had summoned an undead horse. The tigerman looked at it uncomfortably.

"Less brave than a human female?" Ainz goaded him, and with a snarl Rargnan was on the horse.

"This way." He said and they began to ride, and ride hard. A living horse could not have carried him at all, the undead one carried him easily and did not tire even slightly along the way. They ate up ground faster than he had finished the ham that Ainz had generously given him in good faith, and the day passed swiftly, eventually they came to the remnants of a road, cobblestone, but broken and obviously poorly maintained.

They paused there at Ainz's indication. "Tell me, why does your capitol not repair the road?" He asked, looking at Rargnan curiously.

The tigerman shrugged his shoulders slightly, "I have no idea. I know that when they did, that was a death blow to many of our villages, without good roads, no trade, without that, no ties, with no ties, conflict became more violent more quickly."

"Unsurprising." Ainz said, "A nation with no roads is no nation, a nation with bad roads is a nation in bad times."

"So we follow what remains of this road to the capitol I assume?" Ainz asked.

"We do." The tigerman replied.

"Is there anywhere safe to stay along the way, where we might not be observed?" Ainz asked.

The tigerman shook his head, "Even if your female there was a beastman like myself, we're down to preying on each other now the only city that is really intact anymore is the capitol itself, I've hunted all over this country since the crisis, towns are fighting towns, villages are fighting villages, cities are...well all but gone except the capitol, and they don't want to stop the fighting, since they're the strongest remaining force, they've been 'taxing' our cannibalism, authorizing raids on our own, that city lives by taking a part of every kill a village or town makes...or suffers. Because it's the largest force, we're all essentially bribing it to continue to exist by tributing them the bodies of our own people." He either could not or did not choose to keep the disgust from his tone of voice, his hatred with thick enough to almost be edible itself.

"I see, well then it deserves to be ended then, doesn't it?" Ainz asked.

"Like nowhere else." Rargnan said certainly, not even considering that he was sentencing them to death by his description, or if he did consider it, he was happy enough about it or at least certain it was well deserved enough that he could say it with a straight face.

"Do your people often cannibalize one another?" Ainz asked.

He shook his head. "No, this is just survival...terrible...horrible survival, but survival nonetheless." He said regretfully. "Haven't eaten properly since the last of the human meat ran out."

Vanysa stared daggers at him, her eyes were insane, glassed over like she wasn't really seeing 'him' but all the things she wanted to do to him, her hands opened and closed over the reins of her mount as if she were grasping his neck.

"Let us make haste to the capitol then." Ainz said, "You will be rewarded there." He said bluntly. "Lead on."

The gallop resumed over the broken cobblestone roads, wind swept dirt and filth and dust about, and every now and then they rushed past a single skeleton or group of skeletons, all had obviously been defleshed and consumed by their killers, based on their positions, Ainz concluded that they'd been ambushed going to the capitol city, what they'd hoped to do there he wasn't certain, but eventually Rargnan halted his mount and roared his frustration. "So THAT was it!" He snapped and snarled for several minutes.

"What was what?" Ainz asked coldly.

"When the invasion began, the capitol hoarded food for distribution, and they called representatives from various villages to come and draw supplies...shortly after that, villages started turning on one another when the capitol reported handing out rations, only for those carrying them to be killed and the rations carried off by another village. It hastened our downfall a great deal...but these are going towards the capitol, not away from it." He said with hatred in his voice.

"So they were killing the representatives, harvesting those for food to sustain themselves, then telling the villages that another village stole their food...then taxing some of the 'harvest' taken in revenge." Vanysa said, her voice was cold and a little smug.

"They deserve to die." She said bluntly.

Rargnan looked at her with surprise, "Why do you hate them, human? I have reason to now, but what of you?"

She looked over at him with utter contempt, "My name is not 'human' Rargnan, my name is Vanysa, address me as such or I will turn your skin into my fucking bathrobe." Her eyes narrowed and before he could object or respond to her promise, she elaborated, "You also deserve to die...for the consumption of humans that you have raised as mere meat, but they deserve to die as well, for all the chaos their cruelty caused. Perhaps you would not deserve to die, if they had not deserved it first."

"Your majesty, I realize it is late, but I am very eager to reach the capitol...can we push on, my lord?" She asked.

He shook his head, "No, we will see it in the morning, you can get your rest, we will go to Nazarick again. "Rargnan if you are still here and alive in the morning, you will get two hams for breakfast." Ainz promised, and before the tigerman could ask where they were going, Ainz and Vanysa had dismounted their horses, a gate opened, and the pair stepped through, leaving the tigerman equal parts mystified, hopeful, and terrified as he sought a place to rest in safety.

**AN: Well here we go, another double release and this one was an interesting thing to do. Unrelated note, in "Bone Daddy's Daughters' I included some of the actual steps involved in learning knife throwing, and the 'trophic cascade' that I depict is a real thing that happens when an environment is thrown out of balance. Anyway, thought you might enjoy this exploration of the beastman wasteland and...you can look forward to some epic decimation tomorrow. :) Till then...**

**Reviews are welcome.**

**We have a discord for readings (I've started doing advance audio chapter reading now, so discord members get the chapters first, fan art, and general interaction, and I enjoy interacting with readers so...hop on in: /hJrfday**

**Till next time, have a great day! :)**

**OH...and if you're reading this 'ALearningMan' Publish your next chapter...you're killing me man! :) **


	13. City Devoured

...Beastman Kingdom...

Rargnan was almost something like happy, for the first time in months or more. As a minor village chief he'd been quite happy once, but from the collapse onward...notsomuch. Now he was alone on the wastes and the unholy powerful being that had quite literally broken and remade him was gone. Tigermen were not known for their cowardice, but one lone figure was vulnerable out here, he looked around to find a place to conceal himself...and then that terrifying hole in reality reappeared and a skeletal hand came through and gestured for him to come forward.

He didn't move even after the hand withdrew.

The human, Vanysa she'd said her name was, skipped through and stared at him like he was an idiot.

"Whatcha doin out 'ere? Yah wanna get ate?" She asked.

He stared at her dumbly.

"Mah master says he'd rather not chance havin to find a new guide, so yah can c'mon through here if'n yah can behave yerself. An yes, he says yah can 'ave somethin ta eat."

The lure of food was a powerful one, but a portal like that was an unknown.

"Wow, bit of a coward aincha?" She asked, "Look ahm nah gonna tell yah this cuz ah like yah, ah still wantcha fer mah bath robe. But through there be heaven, an if'n he says he aint gonna hurtcha, he means it. Now do yah wanna make 'im mad?"

"Alright." He said, "Lead the way...Vanysa." He said as he looked into her mad eyes.

She spun on her heel and leaped through like a fawn, and Rargnan gingerly followed, stepping through the portal in front of him and finding himself somewhere else...somewhere unimaginable.

As far as he could see, there were green rolling hills, trees, there was a lake nearby that had clean water, none of the green bloom that made it undrinkable and deadly in his country, he instantly fell to his knees and down to all fours behind the two. Even seeing Vanysa with her back to him, he was so overwhelmed he could not even think of her as food, all he could do was touch the grass and the soft fertile earth beneath him, it was like his country had been when he was young.

"You didn't lie...human...Vanysa...this is...heaven." He said in his rough tigerish voice.

He crunched the grass and squeezed at the soft earth between his furry fingers, he let himself fall forward on his belly, and savor a feeling he hadn't had in a long time.

The skeleton beside the human paid him no mind, it only laughed in low, noble tones as the tigerman, fierce predator, rolled like a kitten until he lay on his back. "How...how did we lose this? Were we cursed by the gods?" He asked softly.

"You killed it." Ainz said bluntly.

"What?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"I said, you killed it." Ainz answered.

"I still don't understand." He said.

"Its called 'Trophic Cascade', it is environmental collapse due to the destabilizing influence of a species arrival or departure, or some other form of localized shift that results in a change. If a river dries up, can anything live off the fish?"

"Well no." He said.

"So the things that lived off the fish either need other food, or they die, right?" He asked.

"Sure." He answered.

"So if they start eating other things, then those things populations can fall, or even disappear, and then other life that needs to eat those things, also dies, or the species that ate the fish die off because they can't eat anything else, but then the life that needed that species also disappears. Every form of life is interconnected in some way, and when the balance shifts with the destruction of one organism for any reason, it can have an ever greater effect on everything else. In your case, your people became to many, ate to much, and destroyed the very land that sustained you, in trying to maintain your population. Frankly, for all the revenge humans desire on you...you're giving it to them yourselves." He said.

"But the expedition..." He began.

Ainz laughed, "Would not have changed a thing. Not for long anyway, there were simply to many of you, you take a lot of water to satisfy your thirst, you take a lot of meat to feed all of you, even if you took the entirety of the Draconic Kingdom in a day, your invaders were eating up most of what they took just by themselves, and though the Draconic Kingdom was not especially strong, relative to yourselves the Empire of Baharuth and the Slane Theocracy and even Re-Estize were noteworthy, and a combined alliance would have taken away your 'people ranch' with relative ease within two years, there isn't a chance they would allow you to share a border with them. Re-Estize has a population of millions, they can put hundreds of thousands into a battle, backed by sixty thousand Baharuth imperial knights and the bulk of the Theocracy scriptures, the adventurers guilds and elites of all three kingdoms, and they don't even have to invade, just deprive you of your ranches, and you'll starve to death as a people and turn on each other all over again. Even if I did nothing...the Draconic Kingdom would be your last stand, within fifty years, I doubt there would be even two thousand beastmen left in all your kingdom. Those who didn't get eaten by others or die of the red patch or die in battle trying to hold on to food for one more day...would end up being hunted down by vengeful adventurers for bounties and rewards aplenty. Within a hundred years, your entire kingdom will go extinct if nothing changes."

The tigerman listened to all that from flat on his back, the wonderful feeling of the grass the feel of perfect spring air, no dust blowing through his nose or choking his lungs, somewhere nearby he heard the sound of a waterfall, and it was actual splashing, not the steady 'gloomp' sound of lumpy green bloom thunking into the water below.

"We...destroyed ourselves?" He asked, he could hardly believe his ears, it was horrific to think of, but the being nearby sounded so absolutely certain...

"Are you...sure of this?" He asked softly.

"I am." The Sorcerer King replied.

"How..." He asked.

"I've seen it before, on another world I was at, years and years ago. The people there destroyed themselves by destroying the world they needed to survive. Fools, profound fools, they poisoned the air they breathed, the water they drank, if a species was inconvenient, it was driven into extinction by intent or by accident with an indifference towards their own impact on it. Some fought back of course, they once had a great park, almost as large as some countries, it was nearly destroyed by the eradication of its wolves, then decades later, they brought the wolves back, the wolves ate the deer, the reduction in deer allowed the plants to return, the plants ended soil erosion, the soil holding firm let the river flow firmly and consistently, the fish returned and grew larger, the beavers came back and created new niches for new life to thrive on, the bears came back when the trees with berries returned, they saved it all there once...just by the introduction of a few wolves who restored the predator prey balance...but it wasn't enough forever. In the end, that world choked to death on its own hunger for more and indifference to the wealth they already had."

Ainz turned to face Rargnan and pointed at him, his skeletal finger seeming to be that of death itself decreeing it was his time. "Your people did the same thing to yourselves, and all you were doing by attacking the Draconic Kingdom was expanding the destruction and delaying your end by a handful of generations at most."

"Are we doomed then?" Rargnan asked, while his mind spun beyond the impossible as he imagined the ageless being before him, as not a mere world traveler, but a traveler of worlds, he felt his doubt melting away, this being...whatever it was...spoke the truth.

"No." Ainz said.

He was just about to ask what could be done when he realized...he had never bothered to ask the skeletal figure his name.

"Who...are you?" Rargnan asked with fear and trembling awe.

"I am the Sorcerer King, Ainz Ooal Gown, ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom, North of the Slane Theocracy, East of Re-Estize, South West of the Baharuth Empire." Ainz answered, "And to answer your next question, this," he flung his arms out, "Is a fraction of the realm my friends and I created, my home."

"You all created this..." He asked, "Are you gods...?" His gravely voice was rough and low, but even that could not hide the innate awe the tigerman felt.

"Does it matter?" Ainz asked. "The important question is the one you haven't asked yet, and that is 'how' can your otherwise inevitable fate be averted."

"Tell me Rargnan, what were you doing, before everything fell apart?" Ainz asked politely.

"I was the chief of the 'Great Maw' tribe, we had a village, not large enough to call a town, but larger than most villages. Large enough that I didn't have to live life being stupid and ignorant since we had a few teachers, good enough for me to understand the thing you say of these failures..." He said almost defensively.

Vanysa watched all this with a curious expression on her face.

"Majesty..." she began as she sank to one knee with her eyes downcast. "WIll you forgive this humble servant of your august self a few words?"

Ainz mental eyebrow perked up, her ability with language had continued to improve as her reading had, and as her interactions with his own more formal grasp of language had required her to adapt to him. He reached down and cupped her chin and tilted her face upwards, her eyes were clear and unclouded, at least when she held that look. Idly he wondered if it would continue to grow over time in its duration, or if she would revert when they parted ways.

"Go on, speak your peace Vanysa." He said.

"Sire, this humble girl has not known you overly long, yet a good servant should know the mind of her master, and I think I begin to." She said softly.

"And?" He asked.

"And I believe your majesty is going to offer to save his country, am I right?" She asked softly.

"I am...the land at least, his kingdom is another matter. If a kingdom changes enough, is it still the same place?" He asked philosophically.

"Sire, my lord...my god...after all that they've done..." She started to say, but he put one finger to her lips, and their movement ceased.

"Do you trust me Vanysa?" He asked.

"More than anything." She replied with breathless passion in her voice.

"Then trust me when I say that what I do, is necessary, not only to avenge your people, but to salvage the land itself and ensure that a second ravaging of their neighbors never happens again. By now every single one of those who invaded your country is dead, dying, since the cities were annihilated and the villages are no doubt wiped out as well, and put plainly any who were taken captive are wishing they were among the dead as my servants crush their remaining will to exist or resist." Ainz said firmly, closing his skeletal hand into a fist for emphasis.

"Content yourself with one final vengeance, one that destroys the seat of their corruption once and for all, and then all will be set to rights, and it will be time to return home." Ainz said. "They are the last of the truly guilty, they will be punished for it in horror and pain, and then it will be done."

Vanysa gave a small, almost childlike nod. "If'n yah say so majesty...but...c'n ah eat some of em?" She asked, the prospect of vengeance and punishment returning the madness to her eyes, and at that, Ainz chuckled and patted her head. "Not this time." He said. "There will be none left."

Rargnan watched this interplay with curiosity and fear, the human girl he knew as Vanysa had been about to argue for the extermination of his country, and as he heard them talk about the casual consumption of his people by a human, and he felt a very faint chill sweep across his mind, causing him to wonder if perhaps he was feeling a hint of what the humans being invaded had felt. It was not a pleasant feeling.

Ainz turned back to Rargnan, who had risen to his knees. "Is it true?" He asked.

"Is what true?" Ainz asked in return.

"Are you going to save my kingdom?" He asked.

"No." He replied.

Rargnan's face looked desolate for a moment, even on a tigerman, sorrow and loss could be evident, but then Ainz added, "I am going to give it the means to save itself. But FIRST there is a price that must be paid by those who are chiefly responsible for its collapse. I am going to utterly destroy your capitol, when it is done, then the salvation can begin for those few who survive." Ainz said.

"For now, the two of you will eat and sleep." Ainz said, "I had intended to provide rooms but...under the circumstances...a little camp out here on the sixth floor seems appropriate."

A few minutes later after a brief message a number of servants arrived bearing various dishes that had Rargnan convinced...if he had any doubts, that Vanysa had spoken the truth about this being heaven, he had not eaten so well in years upon years, and even when he had in quantity, none of it had been of this quality.

When he was finally finished and the food stopped...bringing food, he thought the matter over further and asked the Sorcerer King, "You are not doing this for nothing, are you?"

Ainz shook his head. "No, absolutely not."

"What do you want?" Rargnan asked.

"The first is that the raids on the settlements of intelligent beings must stop, not humans, not demihumans, not even each other. The second is that because it is the nature of your population to have to take measures that are damaging to the landscape in order to feed yourselves, your population which must eat meat, must be more limited, you must enact strict population controls on your settlements and ensure that you do not occupy nearly the amount of space that you do. I will impose further mandates later, but suffice it to say these are all for your own good, that your corner of the world can recover and your people are no longer driven to such destitution again." He answered.

Rargnan looked down at the ground and thought that over. "I am a chief without a village to be chief of anymore, all my own are dead and gone, we were declared a 'frenzy' when our tribute from a raid was insufficient, we were thought to be weak, therefore we were to be wiped out. I suppose they must have been right, because out of all my village, I alone survive. So I have no power to accept your terms, and if the capitol is destroyed, nobody else does either."

"And will the others come if there is food involved?" Ainz asked more or less rhetorically.

"They would walk through fire for the mere promise of it." Rargnan said with absolute certainty.

"Then when their capitol is no more, I will send word out over the land to come to its remains, and I will explain my offer to them." Ainz replied, "Now sleep, and if you so much as lick Vanysa...her desire for a new bathrobe will be met...slowly." Ainz said flatly.

Rargnan appeared more offended than frightened, and he prostrated himself to the Sorcerer King.

"You have fed me, she is your servant, she is safe. More than that, you offer to save the world of my youth, I will not forget that." He sighed as he kept his head down, "I eat meat to live, I am well fed, why would I then eat her now?" He asked rhetorically.

"Cause yah hate us, dontcha?" Vanysa asked.

"Of course not. You eat cattle don't you, do you eat them because you hate them?" He asked.

"Course not." She said.

"So, what makes you think my need to eat meat...means I hate you? You're just made of what I happen to eat." He replied.

"But tha torture'n stuff." She said.

"War creates torturers." Ainz said with absolute certainty, "Horror begets horror, and the tortured who suffer horror, become torturers themselves, some are as avengers, targeting those who prey on others, others become the very ones they hate."

"Oh...well...ah still want a bathrobe." She said, sadistically eyeing the tigerman.

"You're already going to get a panda coat on your way home." Ainz said, feeling very much like he was managing a child. "Be content with what you will get tomorrow, and on your way back afterwards." He said.

She pouted, then flopped herself down on her back, enjoying his wayward glance as she drifted off to sleep with a yawn, "As yer majesty wishes." She said.

"You also, may rest, Rargnan." Ainz said, and with an expression of gratitude, the tigerman made himself comfortable and began to doze off.

Morning came quickly enough, and when they awoke and had a hearty breakfast, which the tigerman wolfed down (tigered down?) as if it would disappear if he didn't finish it fast enough, they were soon on their way.

Riding undead mounts, they reached the gates of the capitol faster than Rargnan had predicted, the Sun was in the sky in its noon position, and as they closed the distance, Ainz shrugged it off dismissively. The walls were twenty feet high and very obviously quite thick, but it was not an especially intimidating structure, there was no moat, there was no drawbridge, it did not appear to even have a wooden gate, being secured only by a portcullis, as defensive structures went...it was lacking numerous features one would expect a major city to posses.

Finally Ainz and his party was seen from the walls, and a sentry called down for him to identify himself.

"Detect life, child." Ainz said...nothing happened.

He turned to Rargnan, "Why am I not detecting children within the city?" He asked.

"I believe that would confirm a rumor I heard...that the capitol had resorted to eating its children." He said in a deadpan way that hid his emotions.

"Oh." Ainz said with understanding, "That makes this easy then."

He cast "Hell's emissary" and a hoard of nightmarish faces, wreathed in flame and exuding oppressive malice, rose from where he stood and flew up high above the city walls and scattered to all corners of the city.

"Beastmen of the capitol, the great one has declared that you are to be destroyed for all that you have done, and all that you have failed to do, and all that you will do if given the time to do it. In his grace he grants you two minutes to make peace with whatever gods you follow, and then it is time for you to perish.

The sentry was baffled, almost forgetting the very source of the nightmarish flying heads and their terrifying faces, continued to repeat their words, but counting down the time until the end.

When the countdown ended, the great blue orb surrounded him, swirling around swiftly, and both Vanysa and Rargnan moved to stay out of the magic sphere that circled the skeletal king. He held his posture for a few seconds, and then shouted, "Devourer of Urdu!"

A crackling and rumbling began under their feet, the earth began to shake, but it was clear that for the three outside the walls, there was nothing but the aftershocks, the truth was that the city was the epicenter of it all, the noise began, buildings began to tumble, walls collapsed, including the one in front of them. Screams of horror and terror swept over them, as if calling out to the uncaring Universe for a salvation that they would not, could not receive. They heard the sound of crunching and breaking bones, they heard the sound thumping and thudding as bodies fell from above and struck a merciless stone below, and then...all was quiet. "Break item." Ainz said as he approached the portcullis, it was pointless really to do that, the wall on either side was gone, but it was the principle of the thing. They had seen some of the destruction from the other side, but stepping within it...

The city was simply...almost completely gone. A great maw had opened up underneath, the ground had cracked and swallowed it all but whole, here and there a few buildings remained, but down deep within the hole there were people drowning, clawing, trying to get back up, the water under the city that had supplied it and made life there possible, was mostly gone, enough to drown in, but it had been so far destroyed that the city itself and everyone on top of it was now over an unsupported chasm.

Ainz looked down into the pit, some were still alive, clawing at debris screaming for aid. "Greater close gap." Ainz said, and in front of him new stone appeared, and expanded over the old, and despite the ruined state of the city, it was as if the chasm had never been there. "Detect life." He said. Nothing but down under his feet, and those were winking out as more drowned, idly he speculated that some might linger there in the darkness for days, weeks, or even months. The water supply was still large for a small group, and with the floating bodies of the dead, one could feast on corpses, with food and water, they could persist in the darkness for a very long time, possibly even years if they had somewhere reliable to rest or could fashion something to make that possible. But he doubted anyone would, with no way out at all, to just sit in water, darkness, and death in a chasm below the city was a unique kind of hell, he guessed anyone still alive in the next hour would last for a few days before they took their own lives to escape the nightmare.

"Now, to send a message...of a more peaceful sort." He said, and sent his nightmare faces screaming the news of the shattered, slaughtered capitol across the hellscape of their Kingdom, promising to feed those who appeared before its destroyer, and to destroy those who did not. He had little doubt that his summons would be...widely answered.

"Now what sire?" Vanysa asked.

"Now we wait." Ainz replied.

**AN: Well we're coming to the final stage of 'Taming of the Beasts' and I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far, I have to admit I've enjoyed the various concepts I've gotten to play around with in context of a story, and if you're wondering, the 'Park' Ainz is referring to is Yellowstone National Park, do a search for 'wolf reintroduction saves Yellowstone' and you'll find a video explaining the concept very quickly.**

**If you enjoy my work and want to show your appreciation, you may do so by donating to my charity organization bdgiving dot org. If you want to get an early look at new chapters, well I post them to my discord server (Title: Overlord Fanfiction) before I do so anywhere else: /hJrfday**


	14. The Dark Savior

It didn't take long, though they could hear the screams from under the streets for hours...eventually they began to dwindle, and within hours, no more could be heard. Whether that was because everybody had died...or whether the few survivors had given up on being heard and were now trapped in the darkness and the waters waiting to die alone and forgotten in the shadows beneath the ruins of their former great city...Ainz did not know, nor did he care. In truth, neither did Vanysa...except to hope that the suffering was prolonged, and nor did Rargnan, who oddly...and understandably depending on the perspective, found himself in agreement with Vanysa once he understood just how badly the Capitol had been abusing its position to sustain itself, and the responsibility they bore for destroying his country and his people.

They walked through the ruins, some fragments of the palace still remained, though the holes were paved over, it was still obvious where the cracks had appeared.

"Why is it like this?" Rargnan asked curiously.

"Because," Ainz said, the nature of that supertier spell was that the earth would open up under every single living person in it, that meant that in some cases, entire buildings would fall to ruin below, while for others, only fissures and cracks would appear where few of the beastmen were. Everybody is dead...well...or dying down below now, nobody can save them, nobody can reach them, but what remains of the city are the places where nobody was standing when I cast my spell." Ainz replied, prompting Rargnan to shudder.

"When you are gone, if I live, I will tell all of my people to avoid antagonizing you." He said softly.

"That would be very wise of you." Ainz said without glancing his way as they moved towards the palace.

"How long will it take for your spell to inform the entire remainder of the kingdom?" Rargnan asked as they reached the entrance and walked in to what had once been a vibrant and opulent bustling building of government. Now it was a scarred ruin, with breaks in the walls, toppled and broken furniture, including a vacant thrown that had been split open at the center.

Ainz sat himself on the throne of the Beastman Kingdom, Rargnan did not deem it wise to argue about his choice of seating.

"May I sit sire?" Vanysa asked.

"You may." He said. And Vanysa moved next to his feet, went to her knees, and lowered her bottom to balls of her feet, and she simply rocked back and forth happily there.

"You can use a chair." Ainz said uncomfortably.

She looked at him with bouncing starry eyes. "I am yours, a servant of the avenging god, I belong at your feet awaiting your command." She said with a voice full of devotion. If you wish me in a chair, command me, but this is where I wish to be, this is where I feel safe." She said, and as she 'bounced' with a smile, she made it sly and said, "And too, I know that this servant pleases her master when she does this." She giggled.

"Tole yah, servan gotta stay where master is." She added as the bouncy dancing look came back to her pretty eyes, a spark of the sadist growing strong within as she looked at the throne and imagined the ruler who had destroyed so many of her people, who was most at fault for her torture and suffering...falling from his seat of power into a dark and watery abyss. She wondered if he was still alive in the chasm beneath his throne, or if he had drowned in the darkness never knowing just whose wrath he had brought down upon himself to merit such a horrific and nightmarish fate. It made her giggle to think of him still alive, struggling, clinging to another corpse to stay afloat and retain one more minute of life.

Ainz however, was thinking furiously as he looked up at the shattered ceiling that poured daylight into the once grand and now destroyed throne room... "Please don't be at the remote mirror, please don't be at the remote mirror, please don't be at the remote mirror, he could only imagine Albedo...or worse...Shalltear, trying to act like Vanysa in the hopes of garnering his attention, as they'd never understand it wasn't as they would think it was. Rather than argue the matter or give an order, he let the matter drop.

Rargnan chose to seat himself on a nearby step in front of the throne and to the right of it by a few feet, and Ainz casually pulled out a side of beef from his pocket dimension and threw it to him. The tigerman caught it easily and his eyes went wide and he salivated over the meat. "T-thank you." He said. Giving up food was not a small thing to the recently starving, and he began tearing into it with gusto.

"It will take several hours at least, your kingdom is large, but its population has dwindled greatly, and it is very sparsely populated, we may be here for several days explaining everything." Ainz said.

"If that means several more days of food...I will take it." Rargnan said bluntly and with enthusiasm, drawing a chuckle from Ainz.

As it turned out, Ainz was not wrong, the rest of the day saw more and more beastmen of various types trickling towards the ruined capitol, their shock at what they found was palpable, Rargnan stationed himself at the city entrance and guided the arrivals to the palace where Ainz sat patiently on his throne. A few had thought Vanysa was something to eat, and got their hearts crushed for their trouble, resulting in a very passive group of survivors who watched the skeletal king on the throne of their capitol simply declare that someone should die...and then they did.

After the third such example, Rargnan made a point of informing those arrivals at the capitol NOT to attack the human beside the skeleton if they wanted to survive. Most had the sense to listen, a few did not, and met the fate of the ones before them who had more impulse than they did impulse control.

Ainz kept his word in providing meals to the survivors, and each day he spoke to those who came to him, and each day he began to explain the cause of their troubles that resulted in the collapse of their environment and how their capitol was abusing them and was at fault for the destruction and what would have been their eventual extinction had he not interfered. By now word filtered back of the dead cities where their armies had been wiped out, and ever fewer were willing to take the chance to attack the human as the group that departed informed the people on their way in of the danger of attacking the human girl that was with the skeletal destroyer of cities, Ainz Ooal Gown.

Each time he finished explaining the causes of their suffering, he began laying out his solution for it...

"I am not a genocidal maniac, all those who are guilty of war crimes and all those who are guilty of destroying your country are now dead, your population has been much reduced, there are perhaps twenty to fifty thousand of you in the entire kingdom by my estimate, a sustainable level...if things are allowed to recover...but as you are, still more will starve and you will continue to eat each other into oblivion."

He looked over the crowd before him this day, perhaps a thousand of them, a fair amount of the total survivors of the country, from a number of different villages. They had all had their first full meal in a very long time, and so they were docile, open, and desperate for more.

"I will open up trade with your nation in the things that your nation needs to survive, I will release game back to your countryside, reseed the riverbanks to hold the soil in place, plant trees to restore your forests, and I can destroy the green bloom and the red patch that has wrought havoc on your water, your population, and your livestock. My magic is far beyond any you posses, so this will be trivialy easy for me. Too, I will trade you in food and drinkable water in exchange for what I want."

"What...do you want?" The elders of the surviving beastman villages asked.

"First," he held up one bony finger, "your population must never be allowed to grow to large again, that is ultimately what nearly resulted in your destruction here before, and it will happen again if you allow it. You must limit yourselves in reproduction, I leave it to you to determine how, but you must have no more than three children per household for any obligate carnivore household, or four for those who are either vegetarian or omnivore. Remember, more children means less food for each of you, if you want my help in restoring yourselves...you will obey this condition."

"Second," he raised a second finger next to the first, "as your soil is restored, you will begin farming, and you will export food to my nation, and where feasible, you will begin exporting ores and minerals to my nation. Few of your people eat crops, so virtually all of it will go to me, and nowhere else, this must be an exclusive contract to me for the next one hundred years. When you are sustainable for ranching and no longer require that I export clean water and meat to you, I will give you fair market price for all the grain and other crops you send to me."

"Third," he raised another finger, "Absolutely no 'ranching' of intelligent beings, no humans, no demihumans, you will only hereafter, eat unintelligent beasts such as cattle or sheep, anyone consuming intelligent beings of another species, is to be charged with murder and sent to me for punishment, concealing such a figure will be considered an abrogation of our treaty and justify my return for less than friendly means." Ainz allowed his power to leak out, and when it forced them to their knees, he cut it off, having made his point with the terror on their faces.

"Fourth," he raised another finger, "You will never again be permitted to undertake offensive wars, you may defend your borders, but you will never again cross over with the intent of conflict with neighboring kingdoms, I value the peace, if you break my peace, I will break you. I trust I am very clear on that point." Ainz said bluntly, moving his red orbs over their horrified faces.

"Fifth," he raised another finger, "any surviving human captives are to be immediately released and escorted over the border, I know you have them, I saw what my messenger's saw, any that are not accounted for...I will return to that location and destroy the village attempting to keep them." He said. "I will however, provide food in exchange for those individuals...on the condition that anyone who tortured a human prior to their consumption is summarily executed by the village itself." There were uncomfortable swallows.

"Any village that fails to meet any of these conditions will be destroyed without mercy, any village that keeps to these conditions will be rewarded with a new beginning and a chance at a restoration to the glory days of your early prosperity, I can give to you a paradise, or I can destroy you utterly and in despair, as I did the occupiers of the cities in the Draconic Kingdom, and as I did the corrupt rulers of your capitol." Ainz said firmly.

One of them raised a paw and asked..."Ahhh, Sorcerer King...where ARE all those who lived here?"

Ainz laughed and pointed down. "I opened the earth and stone beneath them, and made it to swallow them entirely before I sealed it up again. Most died immediately, some may still be struggling to stay alive in the darkness and the waters, helpless to do anything but wait to die in a living nightmare that they brought upon themselves by incurring my wrath."

"Now, does anyone 'reject' my terms?" Ainz asked.

There were none who did. Not with that group, nor with the next, nor with the next...for day after day after day, Ainz sat on the throne, granting the arrivals the first good meal they'd had in a very long time, then threatening them with utter destruction while also promising total salvation from the horror their inept leaders had thrust upon them. Such dichotomies and stark choices and thorough demonstrations of absolute power over life and death, proved a very effective combination in drawing them to accept his terms.

In the end, the entire beastman Kingdom had no choice but to yield, though Ainz refrained from claiming rulership over the place, he saw no need for that. And for the time remaining in the palace, Rargnan and Vanysa served as his aids. Ainz explained to both in great detail the finer points of environmental management, and the petty chieftain proved to be an almost desperate pupil, trying to understand in the short time he had, all that he would need to know to restore his kingdom.

Vanysa contented herself with reading to him each night, a thing Rargnan came to enjoy as well as her voice was actually well suited to reading aloud, and the stories she read from were very entertaining, such that the tigerman actually began to recognize some value to humans other than food, when he learned that all those things he was enjoying, had been the product of human minds.

While only a foolish idealist would call them friends, Rargnan and Vanysa at least used names with each other and could speak with civility as the Sorcerer King guided conversation on various topics, in between visits from the various tribe and villages that made their desperate way across the kingdom for a real meal and another round of the Sorcerer King explaining his edicts and terms to those just as he had the former group.

Some of the villagers who listened, chose to remain rather than go home, and became a larger audience for the Sorcerer King's myriad discussions, and Rargnan began to form a tribal council from those who stayed, forging new ties and new bonds where they tribes closest to one another would share overlapping management of the Sorcerer King's investment into their reconstruction.

When the topic of undead labor was raised, Rargnan in particular was most open to it, having come to recognize the value of the control that Ainz Ooal Gown could exercise over it, and seeing that, properly guided, the tireless undead could reseed forests and plant grass and tend to all manner of tasks exponentially faster than even the hardy beastmen, who still needed to eat and sleep.

The end result being that a small cadre of undead were brought through the gate and least with a promise of deferred payment, and with them they pulled wagons of seedlings for various plant life native to the area, and tools for labor to plant them. These Rargnan received control over, and he worked late into the night drawing from books he was shown temporarily to explain how to determine the environmental overlap so that he could effectively repair the damage to his country.

Vanysa found her finest enjoyment in simply keeping the Sorcerer King's company over those last easy two or three weeks, and attending to his small happiness, whether it was playing the role of Scheherazade, and reading stories to him to improve her knowledge, or writing for him to improve her grasp of written language, she repaid these learning pleasures by also attending to his will, reading his edicts to give him a more regal air, laying out rules to the delegates who arrived, or simply fetching him the things he wished...and of course, when time permitted after others had gone, doing her damnedest to tease him into a wayward glance which seldom failed to make him laugh.

When all these tasks were finally out of the way and the labor was well and truly in progress, even to where grass was seen taking hold again and the food began to be delivered in earnest to the desperate tribes, and forests of saplings grew many times over before their very eyes thanks to the tireless labor of a small skeleton workforce, the time had come to go.

The beastmen chiefs who had remained in the capitol of their own volition presented themselves in the throne room, and as one, with Rargnan included front and center, they knelt to their dark savior, who had destroyed plans and populations, but had saved their future from being one of extinction and instead gave them the seeds of prosperity that would restore their land to a vibrant eden like existence again.

"You have your future back." Ainz said frankly, "At a terrible cost, but back nonetheless." He looked them over, and began to dispense advice, "Rule more wisely, and this horror need not repeat itself. Should you require council, send word to me and I will render answer if it is within my power. As long as you stay away from the game I introduce until their populations take hold, and stick with the rations I provide you, your land WILL restore itself, my servant Pestonya has found no more evidence of green bloom or red patch, but exercise care and caution for the next few years at least. Work together towards the common goal of restoration, and you will make the beastman kingdom green again."

He and Vanysa made their way to the front entrance on foot, with no beastman chief even considering standing until he had gone past them, and no beastman so much as looking at Vanysa with hunger, they made it to the gate, and Ainz raised up undead mounts again for themselves.

A moment later they began to ride away, taking their time and looking over the hellscape, here and there green patches of grass were coming back, and they saw small groups of skeletons working steadily on one project or another, along a ruined roadway a cart pulled by skeletons pulled rations towards some distant village, while a small handful of both beastmen and skeletons began to repair roads.

It was a solid week before they reached the border of the Draconic Kingdom, largely because they saw no reason to rush. When they got there, Vanysa grew more anxious and nervous, and the day they crossed over it, she burst into tears.

Ainz looked at her in surprise, no sooner than the undead horse she rode touched the green grass of her home country than she began to cry.

"Why are you crying?" Ainz asked in surprise.

"Cause ahm yer servan sire...an mah master's gonna leave me...ahm gonna miss you, ah ain't had nobody nice ta me sin mah friends n'family got ate, an when we get back, yer gonna go home. Ah know yah are cause yah got king stuff ta do." She said as she sniffled.

"True, he said, but you do have the coins you were able to loot, and also you have this." He said, and reached into his pocket dimension and took out a sack, and handed it to her." She looked at it curiously, then opened it up and looked inside.

"Master, there is a mistake." She said clinically.

"What is it?" He asked, now very used to the wild back and forth of her uneducated and now much better educated mannerisms.

"These are platinum coins, the money within this sack could purchase a mansion of the greatest opulence." She said, "All I did was attend my savior's needs during our journey, I did nothing to merit such a reward." She answered,

Ainz laughed, "I am the Sorcerer King, this is a pittance, take it. But...what will you do with it?" He asked.

"Ahm gonna open up Teats n' Meats like ah said sire!" She said as the bounce came back into her eyes and she stuffed the bag into her pack, "Ahm gonna go start over again at the capitol, ahl buy ah nice house, nothin to fancy, jus a nice place ta live, maybe with a library though fer books...though..." She paused and thought it over..."ah ain't got but a couple, she said thoughtfully."

"You can borrow some from my library till you fill out your collection." Ainz said kindly.

Vanysa grinned happily, "Thankee sire, I'm right happy about that idea. But..."She looked down, uncertain, with a little pout on her face. "Can ah ask yah somthin...?" She asked.

He waved his skeletal hand towards her invitingly, "Please do." He said.

"Are yah gonna ferget me when yah go home?" She asked.

Ainz laughed, "Vanysa you are many things, but forgettable isn't one of them." He replied, and she beamed a shining toothy grin at him.

"Thankee." She said.

"But ah...sire...if'n its nae to much trouble...can ah...maybe write to yah sometime? Maybe get a letter back...ah'd give up all mah reward that yah done given me just to occasionally hear from yah an ta know ah ain't fergotten an hear how yah doin..." She said with a little insecurity in her voice at the request.

"You may keep your reward and you will get your letters." He answered, and her face beamed at him again and shone like the sun, her eyes dancing like stars with happiness.

A few days later they came to where the three beastmen who were sentenced to death by pain were laying. One of them had died, another was not long for it...but the pandaman was still living and envying the dead.

Vanysa's eyes turned sadistically towards him, she did not look over her shoulder at the Sorcerer King when she said, "Sire...may I borrow a knife...I would very much like to make a new coat when I get home."

The screaming was very intense for awhile, even compared to what it was, as Vanysa acquired the pelt of a pandaman that lay skinless and dying of pain in the dirt before they moved on and left him behind. Nobody else saw him when he finally passed away, a month after that, giving in at last to a sudden, blessed death.

The return to the capitol was one of much fanfare, the survivors of the various cities including those who had been held in reserves in the beastman villages danced in the street alongside the passing undead mounts of the Sorcerer King and his servant, and they gradually made their way to the palace, finally entering the courtyard where the people could not follow, but their cheers and praises could.

Vanysa followed the Sorcerer King deferentially two steps and to the left behind him, as a servant should. By this time Queen Draudillon already knew of their coming and was waiting for them both. The nobles within the throne room echoed the cheers of the peasants in the streets, and it was several minutes before the Sorcerer King waved his hand before them all and said, "You're being to noisy, quiet down." And the noise tapered off and fell to silence.

He faced the queen and said, "Your Kingdom is now secure, and I am returning to you the only citizen of your country who dared to accompany me into danger."

Queen Draudillon drew out a document and signed it with a flourish and handed it to Vermillion, who in turn took it and knelt before the Sorcerer King and offered it up.

"The land is now yours, along with the other terms you laid out before us...all that we promised in exchange for your aid, is now yours, and we will not forget what you have done for us, or how little your noble and august self asked of us in exchange for playing the role of our savior. Many a grateful life, will cheer your name to the end of their days." Queen Draudillon said, "And that includes my own, until my last breath."

She looked to Vanysa, "You performed a great service to our country in lending yourself to supporting our savior, and I will remember you as a hero among us." She said, and inclined her head to the peasant girl.

Vanysa gave her a toothy smile and said, "Ah was appy to do it, an ahd do it again if ah could." She smiled, "Now if'n is alright, ah gots ta go see a man about a sanich." She said, practically bouncing where she stood.

She turned to the Sorcerer King and bowed deeply, and winked when she saw where his eyes went at her bow, once again making him glad he could not blush. "Thank you for everything your majesty, even if I should never see you again, I will be forever grateful for everything you have given me." She said with clear and intelligent eyes.

"I wish you well Vanysa." He said, "Queen Draudillon, I bid you farewell and fair fortunes, we will speak of our nations collective futures again some day, of that I am sure." He said.

"Gate." He cast the spell and stepped through it, finding himself back in his throne room, where Albedo, Shalltear, and Demiurge were waiting for him.

"Welcome back your majesty." Demiurge said with a bow. "Tell me, how did it go?" He asked.

As Ainz relayed the terms and all that he had done in the Beastman Kingdom, he stood in awe, "Remarkable sire, you got them to shoulder the whole burden of reconstruction and will have almost eliminated the cost of grain in our own kingdom, and all it cost you was some mana, skeletons, and cheap plants! Truly your foresight and wisdom is far beyond all others, no wonder you lead the supreme beings!" He said and bowed in awed deference.

While Ainz thought, 'I was just trying to not have to spend so much time working on that project too! I really wasn't planning all that!' And he let out a mental sigh.

From up near the throne room, horror emerged, as Albedo and Shalltear skipped down the steps like a certain girl he knew and said, "We're so appy ta have yah back your majesty!"

Prompting the internal scream of Ainz Ooal Gown of, "Nooooo! Damn that mirror! Damn that mirror! Damn that Mirror!"

_...In the Draconic Kingdom...three months after the departure...in a tidy restaurant full of customers..._

Vanysa stood at the counter and bowed deeply as a man entered her shop. "Ello! Welcome to Teats n' Meats sandwich shop, what can I get you today?"

The figure approached her and said, "I'm afraid I'm not hear for food today, I'm here from Baron Tanahs, there is a new tax on this city's imports...and establishment occupancy fees...and sales taxes on all food goods sold...which I'm afraid you owe a considerable amount on...for all of your shops around the city..." And Vanysa swallowed nervously and muttered to herself, "Awe shit.."

**AN: So ends the story of Taming of the Beasts...I hope you enjoyed the ride, and got a good laugh out of the ending don't take it to seriously, this one was always meant to be a bit humorous, though I don't think such behavior would be beyond Albedo or Shalltear given their obsessions and...predilections, so no, I don't think it is out of character for them, pretty much anything they think he'd like, they'll do, and the whole story established that Vanysa's behavior was pleasing to our slightly pervy Sorcerer King...and you too...you buncha pervs. ;) **

**If you enjoyed this story and would like to support the author's charity organization, you may donate to bdgiving dot org as an expression of your appreciation.**

**If you have questions for the author or just want to get early releases, you can join my discord server: /fjc8Bqe**

**And I swear by all the dead gods...if I get one more reviewer asking me to not do side stories...I will do an entire month of Demiurge x Vanysa romance story one shots. 'lol'**

**OK, that joke aside...its kind of annoying. The point of a review is to review THAT story...not to go on about wanting more of a different story. I'd rather see a BAD review, than see a choosing beggar complaining that the hours of free entertainment I'm providing through the daily releases and nearly daily releases of new stories...isn't exactly the story they wanted to be updated that day. I'm doing this for free and for fun and all donations go entirely to charity for which I do not take a penny. Yes, all stories will be updated, the main story will not be abandoned, my upload schedule is easily ten times as fast as almost any other author on this site. Pop a Ritalin, be patient, and let me build this world, and everything will work out. **

**If you don't like a particular story...that's OK, I can't please everyone, I'll accept harsh criticism...anyone doing anything creative for public viewing HAS to be willing to accept that. But show a modicum of patience and respect for the effort I'm putting in to all this and stop asking me to not write the things I want to write on. Some of these side stories were written because someone donated to charity and wanted them written, others were written because a particular part of 'God Rising' took a lot out of me mentally, emotionally, or even physically because some subject touched very close to home, or it took hours or even days of research to get a particular section just right. And some were written just because it made me laugh, smile, and I had a good time with it, or I wanted to explore subjects that I thought had not been well covered before. **

**So can I ask that much? If you want to review this story, however much you loved it, or hated it...do not write a review that just asks me not to write anything but the one story that you like most. I'm not going anywhere, I will finish all these stories, and when I'm finished, if I do half as well as I intend it to, there will be a great big shining world of an expanded Universe of Overlord for you to enjoy for as long as this site stays standing.**

**Thank you, rant over.**

**And really...thank you very much for reading, I'm glad to have you all. **


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